IRATE ENGLISHMAN DISLIKES WHALE MEAT AS FOOD

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 40, 19 September 1949, Page 6

IRATE ENGLISHMAN DISLIKES WHALE MEAT AS FOOD

“Whale meat I have tasted leaves nothing be desired, and I would rather eat it than canned corned beef,” said Mr G. T. Perano, Tory Channel! whaler, in an interview. He was commenting on strong criticism of tne meat voiced by Mr P. Sharman in a recent issue of the British ‘‘Cambridgeshire Times.” Cambridge.

“Our miserable meat ration is to be supplemented by whale meat,” wrote Mr Sharman. “Having eaten my weekly ration of two chops, I tried the whale meat. When being cooked it stunk the house out and will cause most women to vomit unless they are tough. He Was Determined “Being* determined to give it a fair trial I ate ail my portion, but never again. I ate peppermint, smoked tobacco, but could not get the beastly taste out of my mouth, although it was cooked with onions according to Dr Summerskill’s recipe.

“A friend of mine who bought some couk'i not eat it so he gave it to his dog; it sniffed it and walked away. Evidently this Government thinks that what dogs w'orrt eat is good enough for us. I understand that whales live for a long period, so I should not be surprised if the piece I had came off the whale that swallowed Jonah . . .”

“Mr Sharman might have got a bad piece of meat,” said Mr Perano. “And he doesn’t say whether it was skinned.

“In the past, Britain has been getting its whale meat from Norway. It has been flown over with the result that some of it has been 48 hours old before being put on the market. By that time it has not been too good. “I knew Britain had been getting some bad meat, but new regulations framed by the British Government have been designed to put a stop to this.”

No More Smell Than Beef Saying that whale meat left nothing to be dsired, Mr Perano add-; ed: “The meat doesn’t smell. It has no more smell than beef, though a stench is to be expected if the meat is old or bad.

“Whales do not grow to a great age, as Mr Sharman suggests. Scientists estimate their life at between 22 to 25 years. At one time they thought whales lived only about 11 years, but we capsized that theory several years ago when we captured a whale which had embedded in it a harpoon we had used 18 years previously. Later we caught another whale which had a seven years’ old harpoon in it. Even so, 22 to 25 years is not a great age for' an animal of such a great size.”