One study found levels of mercury in whale red meat at six times the limit set by the US FDA for food. Whale meat can also be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls. Critics claim that, because of contamination, it constitutes a health risk. Thus children and pregnant women are advised to refrain from eating whale meat. On April 1, 2014, online retailer Tauten asked its sellers to stop selling whale and dolphin meat by the end of the month. The notice was a result of Japan calling off the whale hunt following a ruling by the International Court of Justice. UK based activist group Environmental Investigation Agency has accused Rakuten of being "the largest online seller of whale products". Media attention Western media attention regarding Japan's whaling industry has increased. Animal Planet's television series, Whale Wars, places a camera crew on board the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society anti-whaling activist ships to document the annual interference with Japan's Antarctic whaling program. Japan has denounced the program as deceptive and supportive of eco-terrorists to increase ratings. Animal Planet has made requests to also film from the perspective of Japan's whaling fleet but the requests were denied. The animated series South Park lampooned both Japan's whaling traditions and the anti-whaling activists featured on Whale Wars in the episode "Whale Whores". A 2009 Oscar-winning documentary, The Cove, focused entirely on Japan's dolphin drive fisheries, mercury content of dolphin meat and the whaling town, Taiji. The film also concentrated on the difficulty in observing Taiji fishermen at work due to obstruction from the local police. The New Zealander Peter James Bethune received a two-year suspended sentence after boarding the ship which collided with his boat the Ady Gil, which subsequently sank. The New York Times reported the whaling town of Ayukawa, in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, was badly damaged by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. After the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster in 2011, radioactive cesium was found in two minke whales caught off the coast of Hokkaido. See also Aboriginal whaling Convention of Kanagawa International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling Oriental Bluebird Sea Shepherd's operations against Japanese whaling References Further reading Christopher Aldous. “The Anatomy of Allied Occupation: Contesting the Resumption of Japanese Antarctic Whaling, 1945-52.” The Journal of American East Asian Relations 26:4 (2019): 338-367. External links Official bodies Whaling Section, The Fisheries Agency of Japan Institute of Cetacean Research The International Whaling Commission Organizations