The salty sea breeze wafted by as Bi Fang sat on the rocks, exhaling gently.
Many fishermen by the sea call dolphins "sea pigs."
They wouldn't actively catch sea pigs; over ninety percent of fishermen, to a greater or lesser extent, were superstitious. They firmly avoided unfamiliar fish species, believing they would bring calamity.
Bi Fang didn't fully believe what the fishermen said, based on what he knew.
In Japan, the regulatory safety limits for mercury content in food are 0.3ppm for methylmercury and a total of no more than 0.4ppm—yet the mercury content in Taiji County dolphins that the National Minamata Disease Research Institute investigated was 2.65ppm, which was 8.8 times over the standard.
The mercury content in the large and long-lived pilot whales even reached 11.6ppm, which was 39 times over the limit, something to be avoided at all costs.