Evidence indicated that the populations of Bryde and larger Sperm whales have recovered enough over the period in which they were not hunted that catches of the whales can begin again, the agency said. As a part of the study, the whales will be killed and their meat sold to local markets, it said. A White House spokesman said Clinton and Blair exchanged letters this week with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on the whaling. The World Wide Fund for Nature has urged the Clinton administration to consider trade sanctions against Japan. But the whale meat ends up in the market for human consumption.
Japan is the largest consumer of whale meat in the world.
At a meeting in Adelaide this month, Japan and Norway blocked an attempt to establish an ocean sanctuary to protect whale breeding grounds in the South Pacific.