Whaling is currently done by the following:

Inuit in Canada
Faroe Islands
Greenland
Iceland
Lamalera in Indonesia
Japan
Norway
Russia
Natives of St Vincent and the Grenadines
Inuit in the United States


It seems likely that the primary reason that whaling countries are continuing to whale in the face of international opposition is because there IS international opposition. Someone ELSE is telling them that they CAN'T. Of course they're defensive and they're going to keep on doing it.

Small numbers of animals taken by native cultures using traditional methods make up the rest of the story. Some of these countries are trying to hold on tightly to a cultural heritage. If pressure from the outside were removed...ie, they were permitted to engage in some controlled commercial whaling...then perhaps they could begin to view it more objectively.

Whale meat is toxic. It's horribly sad, but it's undeniably true. Many Japanese folks are already starting to realize that it's not worth it, and have given up eating it. The levels of mercury in whale meat are truly staggering.

They need to be given some breathing space to work on the issue internally. The meat is too hazardous be eaten, and once they're allowed to do so, it seems very likely that first the people will reject and then, finally, the government will ban its sale because it is a public health hazard. Tradition only goes so far. That one has been lost to pollution.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12685467