And if they did come out of the water it might be at Jangsaengpo Port, Ulsan, near where I live, where there is a long row of  whale restaurants lining the coast. More on that in a minute.

From the Telegraph:

Scientists in Japan have given a beluga whale a vocabulary of three words, the first time a marine creature has been able to link a sound to an object and then repeat the sound as a ‘word’.Nack, a 23-year-old beluga whale at the Kamogawa Sea World aquarium in Chiba Prefecture, has been taught to make different noises for a bucket, diving goggles and a pair of diving fins, said Takashi Murayama, a professor at Tokai University who has been training the creature for the last five years.

Remarkable. Many think humans have communicated with dolphins, but actually that’s not true. This marks the first communication between man and cetacean (whales, dolphins and porpoises). Right now the whale, named Nack, only “Right now Nack only knows three words, Murayama and his crew are working on the whale recognising different voices.

Nack gives off short, high-pitched sounds to identify the diving fins, a long, higher-pitched note for the goggles and a short, lower tone for the bucket.When the sounds are played back into the water, the whale is able to understand the noise and identify the object.

I did some poking around about whaling in Ulsan. Apparently the law says the sale of whale meat is restricted in Korea to whales that have been found dead or those that are accidentally snared in a fisherman’s net. It would be funny to go to some of different whale restaurants and ask some of the owners about this. I’m sure there’d be some great reactions. I’d bet a whale fin necklace 90% of the whale meat served in Ulsan is killed like any other meat.

I found this part editorial, part acid trip written by Choe Chong-dae, who I assumed was going to condemn whale meat, but then goes into into acheology, ancient Korean history, and naturally, his father. In fact Choe loves whale meat.

I recently returned from a summer vacation at a small fishing village in Ulsan where I tasted with relish whale meat, with its unique aroma.

According to Choe, Ulsan’s whaling history goes back thousands of years.

Korea was a whaling nation from ancient times. Koreans began hunting whales as far back as the Neolithic period in the seas around Ulsan. Modern Ulsan has been developed into Korea’s largest industrial complex, with no trace remaining of these ancient whaling times. Ulsan Bay, located on the eastern coast of Korea, is a narrow, long trench gifted with deep recesses. From prehistoric times its interior depths were a well-traveled migratory route and habitat for gray whales.

As a result, Jangsaengpo Port, Ulsan, became a popular outpost for whalers, which made Ulsan a central city for the international whaling industry.The relationship between Ulsan and whales dates back to pre-historic times. There is historical evidence of a whale-hunting civilization in the ancient engraved rock art at Bangudae. The Bangudae petroglyphs are carved on a rock panel that depicts prehistoric people and about 270 sea creatures, such as whales and turtles as well as land prey such as tigers and wild boars. The carving features people on their boat, with large fishing nets, spears and shields. The picture represents a whaling vessel used to hunt gray whales and sperm whales, and is proof that whaling was done by Korean people in prehistoric times.

Incidentally whale meat didn’t make ZenKimchi’s 100 Korean Foods You Gotta Try list. Oddly, Hongeo, which is kind of like marinating fish in a recently deoderized urinal, is on the list. I guess I did have to try that. Once.