Serving Sei Whale Nets Federal Charges for California Sushi Restaurant The Hump

(March 11) -- A sushi restaurant, as it turns out, is no place for an endangered species. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed charges against a high-end Santa Monica, Calif., restaurant called The Hump and its sushi chef for illegally serving Sei whale meat.

"Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species," U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. said in a statement released Wednesday evening. "Federal law has a variety of provisions, including criminal statutes, intended to protect this planet's threatened natural resources. People should be aware that we will use these criminal statutes where appropriate to protect endangered species, including to ensure that they do not end up part of a meal."

Gabriel Bouys, AFP / Getty Images

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against the owner of the The Hump restaurant in Santa Monica, Calif., and its sushi chef for allegedly illegally serving Sei whale meat.

The investigation leading to the charges was somewhat unconventional. A group of Oscar-winning documentary filmmakers worked with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in an undercover "sushi sting" that revealed the restaurant's illicit activities.

Filmmakers of the documentary "The Cove," which unmasked the cruelty behind dolphin hunting in a Japanese fishing village, took hidden cameras into The Hump and filmed the meat as it arrived on their plates. After sending samples to Scott Baker, a marine biologist at Oregon State University, they confirmed that their meal had indeed consisted of the endangered species.

In the United States it's illegal to sell whale meat, and the creatures are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. If convicted, The Hump's parent company, Typhoon Restaurant, could be fined up to $200,000. Its sushi chef, Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, could be fined up to $100,000 and spend up to a year in jail.

Tuesday, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, told AOL News that the investigation into The Hump's whale-serving ways was moving forward and that prosecutors had issued a search warrant for the restaurant.

According to The Associated Press, Gary Lincenberg, a lawyer for the restaurant, said Typhoon is not contesting the charges and is ready to pay a fine.

In a statement to The New York Times, Martina Sagapolu, acting special agent for the Oceanic administration, said, "Making illicit products like whale meat available on the market only encourages the illegal hunting of marine mammals such as the Sei whale -- a species that is already threatened by extinction."

Baker told the AP that the Sei whale is often longer than a bus when fully mature. Though it's endangered, the whale is still hunted and sold legally in Japan. When it doesn't end up on the menu at expensive sushi restaurants, the creature roams the waters of the North Atlantic and munches on about 2,000 pounds of food a day itself.