2 US chefs plead guilty to serving whale meat

LOS ANGELES — Two chefs have pleaded guilty to serving whale meat at a Southern California restaurant that has since closed.

City News Service reports Kiyoshiro Yamamoto and Susumu Ueda entered pleas Monday to conspiracy and other charges involving meat from endangered sei whales. Each faces up to three years in federal prison, along with fines and community service.

Prosecutors say the chefs got the meat in 2009 from a fish importer in Gardena who wrote a false invoice describing it as fatty tuna.

The chefs served it as whale sushi to activists posing as customers at The Hump restaurant in Santa Monica.

The restaurant closed in 2010, but its parent company, Typhoon Restaurant Inc., still faces federal charges.

The importer pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge earlier.