It appears that, when eating meat was prohibited for a religious reason, for example, in holy abstinence in the Catholic Church, whale meat was often eaten as fishes that was not considered as taboo.
カトリック教会における小斎のような信仰上の理由から肉食が禁じられているときに、禁忌に触れない「魚」として鯨肉を食べることも多かったようである。