This is happening despite the fact that about 250 whales have yet to be caught in order to fulfill Norway's annual quota of 753. This year marks the seventh whale-hunting season in Norway after ordinary whaling resumed in 1993. The catch has increased steadily, from 226 in 1993 to 625 in 1998. Leape said the Norwegians have political motivations. Currently no international trade is allowed for minke whales and he says the Norwegians would like to see that change.
Japan is the real market because blubber is a delicacy there.
Most of the hunt takes place in the northeast Atlantic minke whale stock, which has been estimated to number 112,000 animals by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. Worldwide there are about 1 million minke whales. The whales are first caught by the whalers. In the meat processing plants the big chunks of meat are cut into customer size pieces, and then distributed in various ways into the market. Fearing that they will be unable to sell their catch to the processing plants, Norges Raafisklag, the largest first hand dealer of marine sales in Norway, decided to stop the hunt on Wednesday.