Gods of the sea or a degenerate protein source?

There was a big moment in the port of Shimonoseki City in western Japan on July 1, 2019. On that day, the Japanese resumed commercial whaling after a 31-year hiatus. The day before, Japan had withdrawn from the International Whaling Council, after the council refused to lift the whaling ban. The mayor gave a speech and the people watched the whaling fleet lay out of the harbor. There is a long tradition of whaling and consumption of whale meat i…