Mercury in Japanese town that hunts dolphins is high

Published 10:56 pm Sunday, May 9, 2010

TAIJI, Japan — Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary “The Cove” have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said Sunday.

The levels of mercury detected in Taiji residents were above the national average, but follow-up tests have found no ill effects, according to the National Institute for Minamata Disease.

The tests were done on hair samples from 1,137 volunteers of the town’s roughly 3,500 residents.

“The results suggest there is a connection between hair mercury levels and eating cetaceans,” Director Koji Okamoto said.

Mercury accumulates up the food chain, so large predators such as dolphins, tuna and swordfish tend to have the highest levels. The latest studies published by the Japanese government show that meat from bottlenose dolphins had about 1,000 times the mercury content of that from sardines.

Mercury poisoning causes spasms, sensory loss and birth defects, and can be fatal.

Fetuses and small children are particularly vulnerable to mercury, which affects the development of the nervous system. The Health Ministry recommends that pregnant women eat at most 2.8 ounces of bottlenose dolphin per two months.

Taiji had been considering adding a mercury test to its standard set of health checks for several years. The town government last year contacted the institute, which agreed to perform and pay for mercury tests as part of its research, according to Yoshio Kaino, a Taiji official who oversaw the program.

Despite the high mercury levels found in the Taiji tests, institute officials said neurological tests on the 182 citizens who wanted them found no problems.

Follow-up tests are planned by March of next year, with outside experts possibly invited, and a separte study is under way to track mercury levels in the local catch.