Friday, March 12, 2010

Whale Sushi Sting

'Cove' filmmakers expose L.A. restaurant serving whale sushi during Oscars

A Santa Monica sushi restaurant and one of its sushi chefs were charged yesterday with illegally serving endangered whale meat. Its owners face up to a year in prison and up to $200,000 in fines. The restaurant accepts responsibility and will pay the fines, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Once again armed with hidden video cameras and tiny microphones, the team behind the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove orchestrated a sting operation in one of California's most highly regarded sushi destinations — a restaurant called the Hump — while in Los Angeles to receive their Academy Award, according to the New York Times.

The so-called "sushi sting," which involved many of the same James Bond-like undercover methods used to reveal dolphin hunting in the movie, actually began last October when the documentary's associate producer, Charles Hambleton, heard from friends that the Hump was serving illegal whale meat — a shocking allegation, even in sushi-loving Tinseltown where unusual fish imported from Japan can be commonplace menu items.


The rest of the article here.

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