MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

South Korean breaks knocks out whale meat racket ring

Fishermen cut blocks of meat from a 10m-long bottlenose whale

Police have broken an illegal whale poaching racket, confiscating more than 50 tons of Minke meat in the largest seizure of its kind in South Korea, an official in Seoul said Saturday.

Police said they had raided two warehouses in the southeastern port of Ulsan where the refrigerated meat from some 60 Minke whales was found in boxes. Some 70 people including fishermen, distributors and operators of 46 whale meat restaurants have been brought in for questioning, police said. "This investigation is still underway. We're not in a position to release further details," a police detective in Ulsan is reported informing a local newspaper. Whale meat can be legally sold in South Korea if the animals were caught by accident in fishing nets in what is known here as a "bycatch". Each bycatch needs to be reported to the government, with marine police inspecting the whales to determine whether they were caught accidentally or deliberately. Intentional catches are punishable with a jail term of up to three years or a fine of 20 million won equivalent to 21.000 US dollars. Fishermen report accidentally snaring some 200 whales every year. But with Minke whales fetching 35 million won (37.000), environmentalists say fishermen have a powerful incentive to seek out the mammals. They suspect some 400 whales are actually caught annually and consumed in South Korea, meaning some 200 are unreported to authorities. Primitive skills are still used for whaling in South Korea, the Joongang daily said Saturday, with three one-ton boats, each with three fishermen on board, operating together to hunt down the animals. One crew is responsible for the killing, the daily said, by harpooning the whale which then drags the boat around until it tires and bleeds to death. The other crews then help butcher the animal at sea and smuggle the meat onto shore, according to the Joongang daily.