Whale meat

Whale meat is the flesh of whales used for consumption by humans or other animals, and broadly includes other consumed parts as blubber, skin, and organs. It is prepared in various ways, and has historically been eaten in many parts of the world, including across Western Europe and Colonial America, and not necessarily restricted to coastal communities, since flesh and blubber can be salt-cured.

Practice of whale consumption continues today in Japan, Norway, Iceland, Faroe Islands, South Korea, China, the Inuit and other indigenous peoples of the United States (including the Makah people of the Pacific Northwest), Canada, Greenland; the Chukchi people of Siberia, and in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (mainly on the island of Bequia) in the Caribbean.

Human consumption of whale meat is controversial and has been denounced by detractors on wildlife conservation, toxicity, and animal rights grounds.

In Europe, whale could be hunted locally throughout the Middle Ages for their meat and oil. Under Catholicism, aquatic creatures were generally considered "fish"; therefore whale was deemed suitable for eating during Lent and other "lean periods". An alternative explanation is that the Church considered "hot meat" to raise the libido, making it unfit for holy days. Parts submerged in water, such as whale or beaver tails, were considered "cold meat."

Eating whale meat did not end with the Middle Ages in Europe, but rather, whale stock in nearby oceans collapsed due to overexploitation, especially the right whales around the Bay of Biscay. (See History of Whaling.) Thus European whalers (the Basques, especially, were known for their expertise) had to seek out the New World to catch whales. The Dutch (Flemish) were also active in the whaling commerce during the Middle Ages, and a number of records regarding the trafficking of whalemeat and taxation on it occur from historical Flanders (extending to cities like Arras or Calais in the département of Pas de Calais).

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