Too many Sea Shepherd and their supporters post anti-whaling words to the official English Facebook page of Prime Minister’s Office of Japan.
Maren Roush(LinkedIn/zoom info) is one of them. She says “I have a masters degree in environmental science and have worked in public health for 20 years. I just don’t understand how a nationalist mindset would lead people to pick and choose what to believe, ignoring hard science – especially when it puts their families at risk.” on Please read our “Moderation Policy”… – Prime Minister’s Office of Japan. So I crossexamined her. And she says think she will stay away, after my crossexamination. 😀 I feel that I have more to refute her, though.
* I capture all the comments of the PMO post with Pearl Crescent Page Saver on Firefox and I put their images to ftp.emmanuelc.dix.asia/facebook/Japan.PMO/ . On this entry, the most of the text is the copies of Japan.PMO_posts_771156529579336_1392906848.txt (FTP/HTTP) that I pasted the comments around 20 February also to an Open Document Text file(FTP/HTTP) and to an HTML file(FTP/HTTP).
Maren Roush Please stop hunting dolphins and whales.
Maren Roush Taiji brings shame to Japan
Emmanuel Chanel Eric Michael:
Oh… you don’t know even that Taiji is too far from Fukushima 1st Nuclear Site, Ookuma, Fukushima, huh? And what do you know about mercury, huh? You don’t know what provisional regulation values are, do you? People of Taiji or we don’t take mercury less than that value even if the value is higher than average. In addition, it’s one hundredth of the mass influencing our bodies. So we are healthy. And no thank you for telling us the poison of mercury with eating dolphins or any other fishery products. You would want just to look us down with pretending anxious, though.
Maren Roush http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs361/en/. The World Health Organization doesn’t lie. Mercury poisoning is nothing to laugh at, particularly for people of child-bearing age.
Emmanuel Chanel Maren Roush:
Are you trying to refute me? I’m a bit surprised how stupid you are since I take you for trying. I should’ve already know that very well, though. Everyone Japanese here knows what that URI says. It’s too elementary. Looks you missed my explanation of provisional regulation values.
If you don’t know toxicology as well as I, you don’t need to manage the trial to refute, heh… Aren’t there English websites that teach the basic toxicology? Oh, you can’t seek since you are ignorant enough to be a Sea Shepherd? I could learn the very basic toxicology on the Japanese web. 😀 Don’t you feel sad to find that you couldn’t learn such a basic knowledge?
Maren Roush Mercury is not only linked to a higher rate of heart attacks, but is also linked to a higher risk of death from heart attack (I.e. A person with mercury contamination is more likely to have a fatal heart attack than his peers). I have no idea what the rate of heart attacks in Taiji is (and in other areas where dolphin meat is routinely consumed), but it would make an interesting case study (a sad one, too, I suspect).
Maren Roush Reports show that mercury levels in some of the dolphins caught in Taiji are nearing the levels in seafood that caused Minamata Disease in the early to mid-1900s. Do you really feel so strongly about supporting “tradition” that you would expose your families to this?
Tunemitu Shibuya かつての水俣の人は本当に貧しく、近くの海で獲れた魚しか食べることができなかった。しかし現在の太地の人々は多種多様な食物を摂取している。
Tunemitu Shibuya 単に水銀の問題はイルカ漁を止めさせるための方便に過ぎない。
Tunemitu Shibuya もちろん太地町も住民の水銀濃度検査は継続している。東京大学はあるミネラル成分が水銀を体外に排出する効果があるのではないかと推測し調査している。
Tunemitu Shibuya あなた達の水銀に対する指摘は無意味だ。
Maren Roush Not a bad idea, Heike. I have a masters degree in environmental science and have worked in public health for 20 years. I just don’t understand how a nationalist mindset would lead people to pick and choose what to believe, ignoring hard science – especially when it puts their families at risk.
Tunemitu Shibuya あなたは日本人の水俣病によって蓄積された知識を見下しすぎである。
Tunemitu Shibuya あなた達が本当に救いたいのはイルカだけであり、太地の人々ではない。偽善は止めなさい。
Maren Roush Good question, Yuya! It’s disgusting – and that is my own country’s government, which is supposed to represent me! All marine mammals deserve protection.
Emmanuel Chanel Tunemitu Shibuya :
I agree you. People including Maren Roush lack honesty about our health.
Maren Roush:
>Reports show that mercury levels in some of the dolphins caught in Taiji are nearing the levels in seafood that caused Minamata Disease in the early to mid-1900s.
Minamata Disease is by methylmercury discharged from manufacturing in narrow sea area. But we don’t have such a problem now. People of Taiji, neither. Much possible that mercury taken by eating fishery products are detoxified by creatures of the ocean with selenium and so on like the URIs below.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/175/4026/1122.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1637175/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17634687
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18722469
Certainly, people of Taiji don’t have health problems by mercury. Oh, don’t you know what Minamata Disease is?
And…
>Not a bad idea, Heike. I have a masters degree in environmental science and have worked in public health for 20 years.
I cannot observe what Heike Heinze say for she blocked me. But if I simply read the latter part, it looks that you know “provisional regulation values”. But do you really know that? I wonder if all the environmental scientists lack the mind of protecting the earth environment but learned blind love of whales and dolphins. You authorize yourself also with your 20-year-long experience of public health. But does that mean you know better than us about mercury in the protection of the environment? It seems no.
* Note:
I’m blocked by Heike Heinze, Lisa Davies, and so on. So I cannot see them although I want to know what they say.
Maren Roush Re. Selenium reducing the effects of mercury poisoning, that’s great, but personally, I wouldn’t willingly subject my family to that kind of juggling act. If I were forced to feed my family food high in mercury, I would want to have them tested on a regular basis. Is the average dolphin eater knowledgeable and willing to undergo routine evaluation?
Maren Roush Emmanuel, what evidence do you have for saying that Sea Shepherd killed Hajime Shirasaki? Everything I’ve read points to him falling overboard in the middle of the night or committing suicide. He wasn’t even reported missing for 6 hours. I should add that I’m very sorry for his loss – I take absolutely no pleasure in someone else’s pain.
Maren Roush I don’t know anything about this Martyn fellow, but if he is indeed racist, I would not support him in any way. What I DO support are the dolphins and their rights (what should be their rights) to live their lives in peace. Not all westerners who want to see the hunts end are racist and anyone who is racist detracts from our mission.
Emmanuel Chanel Maren Roush:
Good question! Certainly, these URIs of our Institute for Cetacean Research don’t refer his missing as Sea Shepherd’s homicide directly.
http://www.icrwhale.org/pdf/090105Release.pdf
But this part of URI below is an evidence that Sea Shepherd is the murderers to him and our other crews.
>However, the Dutch vessel began to harass and disrupt navigation of the Japanese vessels, even approaching abnormally (to zero point two miles) to the sighting vessel Kyoshin Maru No. 2, which was engaged in the search.
http://www.icrwhale.org/pdf/090107Release.pdf
So it’s too difficult to conclude that Sea Shepherd vessel didn’t cause his death. If it isn’t expressed as Sea Shepherd’s murder on those URIs, it’s clear that they intended to become a cause of his death in Antarctic Ocean. They endanger our crews’ lives with throwing ropes, glass bottles, butyric acid, and so on.(Oh, they do the lives of marine creatures including cetaceans and other marine mammals with those.) If it were under jurisdiction of the most states of America, your country, aren’t Sea Shepherd guilty for first-degree murder since there is rule of felony murder even without proving the murderous intentions? On that parable, it would already be federal offence on admiralty, though. (Remember Judge Kozinski declared that Sea Shepherd is pirates against Japan on the appeal hearing! *) If I were a judge of Japanese courts, and even if our public prosecutors couldn’t prove their murderous intents, I would sentence guilty with dolus eventualis. Even if not guilty for murder, as a sight of counter-terrorism affairs, no problem that we acuse them of killing him. So it’s one evident case for us to respond Sea Shepherd with shoot to kill policy.
* Piracy is under universal jurisdiction on international law. And as far as I remember, there is a real case that the criminals not suspected as the actors is sentenced guilty. So I won’t be surprised if our police arrested Cove Guardians and so on for complicity of murder or so on in your terrorism in Antarctic Ocean.
Maren Roush I’d rather see proof provided by a source other than the ICR, which blatantly lies about the purpose of their hunts in the southern ocean. I think you could make an argument that Sea Shepherd impeded the recovery of his body, but it would turn into a “he said, she said” argument with both sides pointing fingers at the other side. I’m more inclined to believe Sea Shepherd’s claim that they wanted to assist in the recovery effort. SSCS values life overall, whereas ICR is a destructive force. Ultimately, only the ships’ crew know what their intentions were, both in offering assistance and in refusing it.
Maren Roush You can’t really believe that? They care passionately about marine life and the health of the oceans – enough to put their personal safety on the line. If they just cared about money, they could sell dolphins for 10s of thousands of dollars apiece.
February 13 at 5:04pm · 5
[Source IMG FTP / HTTP]
Emmanuel Chanel >I’d rather see proof provided by a source other than the ICR, which blatantly lies about the purpose of their hunts in the southern ocean.
Doesn’t Maren Roush take ICRW for worth reading on earth? She must’ve seen it because I posted some comments about it to this page. I don’t expect her to believe anything to prove that ICR is trustworthy even about scientific whaling, though. Again I found how helpless she is.
>I’m more inclined to believe Sea Shepherd’s claim that they wanted to assist in the recovery effort.
Looks she cannot understand even that Sea Shepherd has mocked seamanship too much to be trustworthy. Does she want to say that our ICR filed a fake case to the US court for keeping Sea Shepherd away? If ICR were a lier, it couldn’t do that.
Is that her result of master course of environmental science? If we take the course for real science for environmental protection, many of us cannot imagine even that she has such a belief. Is it natural since she doesn’t know even Minamata Disease as the case of environmental pollution?(* In Japan, we learn it in junior high school. Note at 13:17 16 Feb JST: possibly, not in junior high but in primary school.)
Maren Roush You are a very unpleasant person, Emmanuel. I don’t put faith in the ICR because they pretend they’re doing “research” on whales as a way of justifying poaching in a whale sanctuary. I don’t understand what you mean when you say “for worth reading in earth” or “mocked seamanship too much”. ICR lies when it takes advantage of a loophole to slaughter 100s of beautiful, sentient animals in an international sanctuary, again, for supposed “research”. As for Minamata being caused by environmental pollution, duh! What do you think is causing elevated levels of mercury in dolphins? Surprise! It’s also caused by environmental pollution! Of course, not at the same extreme levels as seen in the fish around Minamata, but it’s still serious. What’s your degree in? Why are you so angry? Why do you use a pseudonym? Are you a Taiji resident?
Emmanuel Chanel Maren Roush:
I’ve found that you blocked me. But I want to post this for showing all.
>What do you think is causing elevated levels of mercury in dolphins? Surprise! It’s also caused by environmental pollution! Of course, not at the same extreme levels as seen in the fish around Minamata, but it’s still serious.
I can see these:
>水銀の平均濃度は、表面海水中で4.2 ng/kg、1000 m深で4.8 ng/kgとなっており、1986年以降ほぼ同レベルで推移している。
Translation: The average concentration is 4.2 ng/kg in the surface seawater, and 4.8 ng/kg in 1000m depth. And they transit about the same level after 1986.
http://www.data.kishou.go.jp/obs-env/cdrom/report/html/exesum_j.html (7 Mar, 2006)>1990年代後半以降、水銀、カドミウムとも、いずれの海域においても年平均値はほとんど変動していません
Translation: After the late 1990s, the annual average (density) values of both mercury and cadmium changed little.
http://www.data.kishou.go.jp/kaiyou/shindan/d_1/heavymetal/heavymetal.html (28 Feb, 2013)
>日本周辺海域および東経137度線の北緯0～30度では、1995年以降、環境基準値を超える濃度の水銀およびカドミウムは 観測されていない。また、その濃度はおおむね Bruland（1983）に示されている自然界の濃度の範囲にある。
Translation: In ocean surrounding Japan and in 0 to 30 degrees north latitude of 137 degrees east longitude line, mercury or cadmium isn’t detected in concentration higher than Environmental Quality Standards values. And their densities are within natural density shown in Bruland(1983) for the most part.
http://www.data.kishou.go.jp/kaiyou/shindan/sougou/html/3.3.html#sheet3.3-1 (7 Mar. 2006)
> Concentrations of mercury and cadmium were within the limits of a natural background level in the western North Pacific.
http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/NMHS/ccmr/CCMR2010_low.pdf
Hhm, yeah… Certainly your comment is surpsise. I could find that the concentration of mercury in the ocean near us transits little or about same level after 1986 by seeing our Japan Meteorological Agency.
>What’s your degree in?
No comment!
>Why are you so angry? Why do you use a pseudonym?
I hate eco-terrorists and their supporters.
>Are you a Taiji resident?
I’m a Japanese man in in Japan.
Emmanuel Chanel I’m still blocked by Maren Roush. I wonder how to get ninja eyes to see all the comments. But now found!
>Maren Roush http://m.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/02/internet-trolls-sadists-psychopaths-lulz
>約1時間前 · 1
Oh, Maren, your heart is so broken, heh? I don’t expect many Japanese here to be sympathized with you, though. You commit the political debates. So even if you weren’t terrorists or their supporters, it’s natural that you are criticized and hated by your speech. Me, too. Why did you refer your master’s degree? You wanted to say that you are a specialist of mercury pollution, no? It’s natural that you are crossexamined about your knowledge as a master of environmental science.
Leaving that aside, I want you to prove your word: “It’s also caused by environmental pollution!”. I’ve shown our Japan Meteorological Agency’s publications as counter-evidences, that the concentration of mercury in the ocean near us transits little or about same level after 1986.
——– (the copy of that part) ——–
(Omitted)
Maren Roush The water quality off the coast of Taiji is not necessarily a factor when it comes to mercury levels in dolphins (and any other high order predators). First, dolphins are migratory – they could be living part-time in severely polluted areas and part-time in pristine areas. Second, dolphins acquire mercury by eating fish, not through their skin. This does not mean that the mercury in dolphins isn’t from pollution, though – ultimately, most mercury in the water cycle comes from burning of fossil fuels, industry, etc., but the sources of pollution are worldwide – water doesn’t obey nations’ boundaries. It’s “non point source pollution” as opposed to the “point source” pollution that happened in Minamata in the 1900s. (Apologies – I never meant to suggest that Japan’s coasts were polluted in my earlier post. I don’t know anything about that – but they do look beautiful in photos). Third, because of “bioaccumulation”. I’ll try to explain: if medium sized fish eat a bunch of smaller fish each containing a small amount of mercury, they start to accumulate mercury in their bodies. Then larger fish eat a bunch of medium sized fish (which now contain a moderate amount of mercury). The larger fish bioaccumulate larger amounts of mercury in their tissues over time. The same goes for dolphins, which are near the top of the food chain. Since dolphins can live up to 40 years, they can accumulate a considerable amount of mercury in their lifetimes based on the individuals and their diets (just as humans can). I’m not an expert on fish but I don’t think there are many that have as long of lifespans as dolphins do. If you want to avoid mercury in seafood, pick fish that eat plants, not other fish, and pick fish that don’t take a long time to mature. From Wikipedia (but there are a ton of online resources – just google bioaccumulation and sources of mercury in seafood/dolphins): “Bioaccumulation occurs when an organism absorbs a toxic substance at a rate greater than that at which the substance is lost. Thus, the longer the biological half-life of the substance the greater the risk of chronic poisoning, even if environmental levels of the toxin are not very high.”
Maren Roush Here’s some information on how to choose healthy seafood with less risk of mercury, if anyone’s interested: http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/fishshellfish/outreach/advice_index.cfm
Maren Roush And here’s a list of fish in the order of how safe they are to eat: http://www.nrdc.org/health/effects/mercury/guide.asp. Anchovies and sardines are quite safe to eat because they’re so little, but yuck! I hope this helps, and now I think I’ll stay away from this site because quite frankly, when people say they “hate” me when they don’t even know me, it’s a little scary.
Emmanuel Chanel One correction:
I mistook Minamata disease for what we learn in junior high schools but in 5th grade. So in elementary schools. Sorry, all and Maren Roush!
http://www.kyoiku-kensyu.metro.tokyo.jp/09seika/reports/files/dojo_plans/sho/sho_sha_5.pdf
Emmanuel Chanel Will Maren Roush suggest that we should hunt dolphins globaly for scientific research of mercury pollution or so?
Maren Roush:
>The water quality off the coast of Taiji is not necessarily a factor when it comes to mercury levels in dolphins (and any other high order predators). First, dolphins are migratory – they could be living part-time in severely polluted areas and part-time in pristine areas.
Probably, yes. But if so, why cannot so intelligent dolphins keep away from those areas? 😀 Don’t the dolphins visiting those area died by Minamata disease? And isn’t it better for you to act rather against the pollutions of “part-time in severely polluted areas and part-time in pristine areas” than against dolphin hunts in Taiji? Probably, we can learn very much with catching and killing research. About Taiji, people already hunt the dolphins. So much easier for us to do and our researchers actually do.
* Your comment shows also that those pollutions is the diplomatic issue. We need to tell Australia and New Zealand to permit us to hunt dolphins in their territorial sea and EEZ for research, too! 😀
>Second, dolphins acquire mercury by eating fish, not through their skin. This does not mean that the mercury in dolphins isn’t from pollution, though –
Who say “dolphins acquire mercury by eating fish”? Isn’t the quoted part too natural to discuss?
>ultimately, most mercury in the water cycle comes from burning of fossil fuels, industry, etc., but the sources of pollution are worldwide – water doesn’t obey nations’ boundaries. It’s “non point source pollution” as opposed to the “point source” pollution that happened in Minamata in the 1900s. (Apologies – I never meant to suggest that Japan’s coasts were polluted in my earlier post. I don’t know anything about that – but they do look beautiful in photos).
Correctly, from late 1940s.
Same for other fishery products, generally. Certainly, we should take actions of those pollutions in the severe cases, though.
>Third, because of “bioaccumulation”…(omitted)
Many of us learn bioconcentration in elementary school or in junior high school. 😀 I forgot which exactly, though. But it led to seek the source when we learn Minamata desease exactly. For example, these URIs are the publication for junior high school education. You can find 生物濃縮, the Japanese word for biocentration.(Wikipedia explains that in Japanese, too. 🙂 )
http://libdspace.biwako.shiga-u.ac.jp/dspace/handle/10441/8850
http://libdspace.biwako.shiga-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/10441/8850/2/02_4%E7%90%86%E7%A7%91.pdf
So I suppose many of us can easily imagine what you try to explain. 😀 But anyway, our researchers can and do examine dolphins’ bodies even now like this research exists.
>本事例では水銀を蓄積するイルカの臓器切片についてマイクロビームによる蛍光X線分析・粉末X線回折を行い、臓器切片中に，HgSeという生体鉱物が存在することを解析しました。イルカなどの海棲哺乳動物は，有毒重金属元素を体内に高濃度に蓄積していることが知られていいます．そこで放射光マイクロビームを用いて，イルカに蓄積した水銀の状態について調べました．その結果，蛍光X線分析により，臓器切片での水銀とセレンの2次元分布を明らかにでき，また，マイクロビームX線回折によりHg濃集物がHgSeという鉱物として存在することを直接示すことができました。
Translation: In this case, about slices of dolphins’ organs, we had X-ray fluorescence analysis and powder X‐ray diffraction by microbeams, to analized that HgSe(mercury selenide), biominiral exists. Marine mammals like dolphins are well-known for they concentrate poisonous heavy metal. Thus by using the microbeams of synchrotron radiation, we researched the state of mercury concentrated in dolphins. As its result, we could reveal the 2-dimensional distributions of mercury and of selenium, and by microbeam X‐ray diffraction, we could show the Hg ammulations exist as the mineral of HgSe directly.
http://www.spring8.or.jp/wkg/BL37XU/solution/lang/SOL-0000001568?set_language=en&cl=en
So we can find which parts are safe to eat. About whales, too. 🙂 If we couldn
‘t continue whaling and dolphin hunt, we couldn’t research them and the earth environment around them. (And so you lack the sense of environmental science.)>NIMD DIrector-General Juichi Abe said “Generally, residents in tuna and yellowtail eating areas show relatively higher mercury levels in hair samples but there has been no mercury-related health problems reported. So we could say it’s not problematic for those who have relatively high levels of mercury. No need to worry about eating whale meat.”
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604935926205362
The press release of NIMD is this(Japanese).
http://www.nimd.go.jp/kenkyu/report/20100427_taiji_report.pdf
If you have a real pride of scientists as master of environment, be humble to that observed fact!
You and all other anti-whaling people should listen to Covie Monitor’s this word:
>Additional note from Covie Monitor:
>This mercury issue has been a tool of dolphin freaks to oppose the dolphin fishery and was described in The Cove as if the second Minamata disease is already spread in Japan while the Japanese government is hiding the information.
>
>In fact, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare already published investigation reports in 2001 and announced the guideline of food safety in 2003. The Fisheries Agency instructed in 2003 not to sell livers and kidneys of toothed whales including dolphins.
>
>And another fact is there is no actual mercury poisonings reported by eating whale meat, tuna or yellowtail ever since.
>
>It sounds indeed absurd to hear these groundless complaints of criticisms against the Japanese government that nation prides itself on the longest average life expectancy in the world.
>
>If they say they care about the health of the Japanese people, however, this only leave us with a very untrustworthy and deceptive impression as long as they are claiming any sort of animal rights at the same time to oppose the fishery.
* I have a correction of this: Who say “dolphins acquire mercury by eating fish”? Isn’t the quoted part too natural to discuss?
Instead of that, I should’ve said: Who say “dolphins acquire mercury through their skin”?(Added on 20:41, 22 Mar. 2014 JST)
It’s too late, though.
* I found a good source by a teacher of Nagoya City’s public middle schools. On http://www.ons.ne.jp/~taka1997/education/2004/general/03/ , the explanation of 生物濃縮 is bioaccumulation. 生物濃縮 has three translations: bioconcentration, bioaccumulation, and biomagnification. And I couldn’t find that page last time. So my bad awareness led to mistranslate 生物濃縮 as bioconcentration. (Added on 00:44, 27 Jun. 2014 JST)
* Here comes a scientific essay about that observed fact: Methylmercury exposure and neurological outcomes in Taiji residents accustomed to consuming whale meat(Environment International Volume 68, July 2014, Pages 25–32 Masaaki Nakamura, Noriyuki Hachiya, Ken-ya Murata, Ichiro Nakanishi, Tomoyoshi Kondo, Akira Yasutake, Ken-ichiro Miyamoto, Ping Han Ser, Sanae Omi, Hana Furusawa, Chiho Watanabe, Fusako Usuki , Mineshi Sakamoto)
Jamie S McCroskey introduces it with sharing it on 1 Million Strong Against The Sea Shepherd (Whale Wars), a group Facebook. (Added on 16 Aug. 2014)
Emmanuel Chanel Heh… Seems I was too tired. And I misremember Maren Roush as Maren Marsh…:(
Maren Roush http://m.ajcn.nutrition.org/content/78/3/660S.full
Maren Roush http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2014/02/21/japan-has-a-major-international-image-problem/
I could expose Maren Roush’s ignorance well enough by that argument even though I want to crossexamine her more about her view of environmental science, of Sea Shepherd, and so on… She doesn’t know well enough to look us down but maybe, she is the most intelligent anti-whaling person on our PMO’s Facebook page.
* Update on 10 Mar. 2014
I changed the file names and URIs of the source images. I replaced the URIs from posts_11771156529579336 to posts_771156529579336
2 thoughts on “Maren Roush vs Emmanuel Chanel”