Since Norway's resumption of commercial whaling in 1993, a total of 2,238 Minkes in the Barents Sea, Norwegian Sea and North Sea. Norway's self-created kill quota has increased from 600 to up to 711 whales for the year 2003.
Norway has exempted itself from the ban on international trade on whale products... and will be exporting Whale products to Japan.
In 2009, 1,163 Minke whales were reported killed by Japan, Norway, and Iceland. Since 1986, nearly 38,000 Whales (5 different species) have been reported killed.
The fate of thousands of these Minke Whales are at stake as of this morning, the 64th annual International Whaling Commission meetings begin in Panama City.
The Northern Right Whale (Eugalaena glacialis) "...all but eradicated by Norwegian whaling at the turn of the century. In the eastern North Pacific, it seems likely that the Soviets wiped out much of the remaining population in the early 1960's." Now listed as an Endangered Species, it is estimated that only about 300 of these whales remain. Scientists have expressed grave concern for this remnant population under threat due to high mortality from ship strikes and entaglement in fishing nets.