Workers in a town in Japan kicked off the country's whaling season on Thursday by publicly cutting up a whale and handing out samples of the creature's meat to schoolchildren and residents.

The yearly event in Minamiboso celebrates whaling as part of Japanese heritage and traditions passed down for centuries, which is why grade school students were in attendance, Reuters reported. In spite of the increasing bans on whaling, the practice is viewed as something to be passed on to the next generation.

Nearly 40 fifth-grade students watched on Thursday as workers hauled a nearly 10-yard-long Baird's beaked whale, or bottlenosed whale, up a concrete ramp by a pulley.

"This part is the fat. If you're scared, close your eyes," described Yoshinori Shoji, president of the Gaibo Hogei whaling company, as quoted by Reuters.

Residents in the district of Wada commonly consume whale at home and at school, even though the food is not generally part of the modern Japanese diet.

"Here in Wada we eat whales. Every family eats whale at least once during the summer whaling season," Michiyo Masuda, the students' teacher, told Reuters. "If we are eating whales, we have the responsibility to see and learn how they're prepared."

Just 4 percent of respondents to a survey of Japanese people said that they occasionally ate whale, while 37 percent said they never ate it, according to a CNN report.

The whaling season for the year started on June 20 and marks the first since an international court ruled that Japan had to end its Antarctic whale research program, which would have taken place in the Southern Ocean for part of this year and 2015.  

Japan, which has long held the stance that many species of whale are not endangered, can continue to practice the coastal whaling exempt from the international moratorium established in 1987.  

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