WHALES: IN DEEP TROUBLE

"Minkes are there, too. At 30ft long, they are the smallest rorquals, but we do not know how they breed, or how long they live. Yet these are the animals which Japan, Norway and Iceland kill in their thousands each year. Indeed, Norway has just increased its quota from 796 in 2005 to 1,052 this year.

The Japanese call minkes 'cockroaches of the sea', serve their sperm as a delicacy, and their meat as burgers to fast-food addicts. Since the 1986 international moratorium on whaling, Japan has taken, under the guise of 'scientific research', 7,900 minkes, 243 Bryde's whales, 140 sei whales and 38 sperm whales. And despite the use of grenade-tipped harpoons, there is no humane way to kill an animal this big:"

Excellent article