Smuggler Faces Jail for Selling Whale Meat to Santa Monica Restaurant

A seafood dealer faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced today for importing and selling endangered whale meat from Tokyo to a now-shuttered Santa Monica restaurant.

Ginichi Ohira, 54, pleaded guilty in 2011 to a misdemeanor charge of knowingly handling the internationally protected species for an unauthorized purpose in violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Ohira, who operated out of Gardena, sold protected sei whale meat to a restaurant called The Hump, which was forced to shut down after undercover agents and environmental advocates discovered the violation.

Sushi chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto was fined $5,000 in May and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service during two years of probation.

An investigation was launched in 2010 after producers behind “The Cove” documentary secretly filmed Yamamoto illegally serving whale meat to diners.

Sei whales are listed as both protected marine mammals and endangered species. It is illegal to sell any kind of whale meat in the U.S.

Yamamoto, fellow chef Susumu Ueda and The Hump’s parent company, Typhoon Restaurant Inc., were all initially charged in 2010. The charges were dropped, then refiled and revised last year.

Yamamoto and Ueda pleaded guilty last year to misdemeanor counts of conspiracy and the sale of marine mammals in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Ueda received the same sentence as Yamamoto.

Restaurant owner Brian Vidor and his company were also sentenced to fines and probation after he confessed to knowing his chefs were serving the prohibited meat.

City News Service