Is dolphin sushi cruel? Not really. Here I'm trying to point out the irony of protesters and the same rural Americans who detest Asian Carp. Why bring up two different subjects about the industry? Well sushi was for the longest time seen as a barbaric way of eating fish. Slicing a fish up alive seems like the most rude thing to do in front of a customer, but remember that all animals are slaughtered before eaten.
The difference of course is the attachment that sushi lovers have for their fish as opposed to cow eaters who rely on processed meat with no attachment to the furry creatures that they are. Sure we can all agree that fuzzy ears are cute and lovable. But would you associated your burger to it? Would you bite into a burger thinking, wow this is a delicious cow which has been sliced and minced for my little round shaped sandwich?
Well that's the difference. People who eat sushi, sit down and admire the bright red colors of a blue fin tuna. They admire the bright orange colors of a wild salmon. And they adore the bright white flesh of a tai snapper. They know what they are eating because it's a cherished art to eat fresh fish.
In Japan, Taiji Cove offers dolphin meat. For the longest time, you'd think that this was just a niche market. I mean even people in Tokyo don't eat dolphin. It's not sustainable to eat dolphin on a daily basis for an entire population of Japan. In fact, Taiji is so small you can compare it to a small rural down in America. The issue really came up with the Sea Shepherd and their protesters.
Eventually the movie Taiji Cove came out which outraged Americans because they believed that slaughter wasn't bloody. Painful. Nor ugly. This detachment to their foods totally caught Americans off guard about the foods they eat.
In the same light, Asian Carp has a different aspect. First, the same sushi eaters adore Asian Carp. Not only is carp appreciated. In Lake Akan in Hokkaido, the Ainu people revere the fish. It's so clean in the lake that people find it one of the most cherished gifts of nature to the Ainu people.
In Japan, carp or koi aren't distinguished as a species. First, the carp you find in your lakes are the same carp that you would see at the koi pond. The only difference is that a fish farmer spent thousands of years breeding carp to be colorful. In Japan, on Children's Day, Koi is worshiped. The carp is a symbol of prosperity for children born and growing up.
The truth is that this species of fish and any other fish really is appreciated and adored by sushi eaters. This is the disconnect between America and Japan in terms of food. Dolphin is worshiped and even revered in Japan, but not because it's some sort of fuzzy eared creature for a zoo, or a fake mammal on TV show which saves the day in ever episode, but rather for its flavor and it's contribution to the Taiji people.
In the end, the same people that bash Asian Carp and don't consider it a food fish should also be placed in the useless category with the Taiji Cove protesters. Essentially they disrespect the foods that people eat and they lack any idea of what it means to slaughter a creature for our consumption.
These same protesters won't eat sushi and won't eat dolphin, and I'm almost sure they won't touch Asian Carp. And the yet, they will waste no time going for a hardy steak or a delicious burger. Maybe it's because they feel it's okay to slaughter cow and eat them. Yet it's not okay for Japanese to eat their sushi. Why worry about cow right? I mean it's plentiful and they are born to be killed for burgers?
Or how about pig? Let's just raise them to kill them for beacon? To compare cow to dolphin sounds weird to the naive. However, you have to look at it from the sushi lover's perspective. They know what they eat. There is no detachment from the killing of their animals to the table. It's respected and almost cherished through that sharp knife of a skilled marksman. They know that only a sushi chef can kill the animal and make it fresh enough to eat raw. They know that it was a fish that sacrificed its life to become a small bite to eat by the population.
And that's why to me, disregarding Asian Carp as a cherished fish is no different than the protesters who attempt set a fake moral ground.
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