Steve Palumbi is no stranger to controversy. A marine biologist at Stanford University, Palumbi incurred the wrath of the Japanese whaling industry more than a decade ago by conducting the first genetic study of whale meat sold in Tokyo food markets.
Japan harvests more than 300 Antarctic minke whales every year for scientific research. The Japanese government, arguing that minke whales are relatively abundant, allows the slaughtered giants to be sold as food.
In the early 1990s, conservationists began to suspect that threatened and endangered species also were being commercially exploited. To find out, Palumbi decided to analyze samples of DNA from whale meat randomly purchased at local Japanese markets. The results, published in 1994, revealed that, in addition to minke whales, retailers were selling food made from humpbacks and other protected species, for as much as $100 a pound. Palumbi's findings were immediately denounced by the Japanese whaling industry, but the government of Japan eventually adopted his techniques and began conducting its own DNA tests to prevent future sales of contraband whale meat.
''The most important thing is to establish a dialogue,'' says Palumbi, a professor of biological sciences at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. He maintains that commercial whaling nations, such as Japan and Norway, are more likely to heed the warnings of conservationists whose conclusions are backed by solid science. ''New technologies are providing a much more refined picture of whale biology today than we've ever had,'' he notes.
On Feb. 20, Palumbi and other marine scientists will describe some of these technological innovations at a symposium titled, ''What C
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Contact: Mark Shwartz
mshwartz@stanford.edu
650-723-9296
Stanford University
19-Feb-2005