In the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
rescuers from Canada and the U.S.
try to free three whales
entangled in ropes.
In the port of Kushiro,
a crane lifts the body
of a Minke whale.
Mouth wide open.
Baleen shown.
Blood drips from where the harpoon hit.
It is the first of 227 whales
to be killed this year
– 25 of them endangered –
as Japan lifts its ban
on commercial hunting.
Tokyo restaurateur Shintaro Sato
hopes young Japanese
will rediscover the taste.
His family
has been preparing whale dishes
for half a century.
(Editor’s note: poet Shai Ben-Shalom, an Israeli-born biologist, writes for Blacklock’s each and every Sunday)
