This new report calls on Yahoo! Japan and its parent company, the LY Corporation, to stop selling products containing whale and dolphin meat after our investigations found high levels of toxins in some of the nearly 1,000 cetacean food items available for purchase on the search engine and web portal.
EIA has identified 15 populations of cetaceans (the collective term for whales, dolphins and porpoises) that are threatened due to bycatch in European waters – especially among harbour porpoises, with an estimated 35,000 deaths each year, mainly in static fishing nets. The level of bycatch in European waters is so serious that several populations of cetaceans are endangered and face potential extinction despite binding legal requirements to adequately protect them.
Illegal fishing of protected totoaba fish in Mexico’s Gulf of California and their subsequent trafficking and retail as part of transnational organised crime are responsible for the rapid decline of vaquitas, the world’s most endangered marine mammal.