Norway, which since 1986 has flouted an international ban on commercial whaling, has stockpiled about 500 tons of blubber from thousands of minke whales, which it hopes to someday sell to the Japanese. The Japanese consider the blubber to be a delicacy, but its sale abroad is outlawed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. The Norwegians are mounting a major diplomatic effort to downlist the northeast Atlantic stock of the minke whale at next year’s CITES meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, so that blubber trade can resume.
