Caught in only modest quantities for centuries, the minke whale was largely ignored until the late 1960's, when the great baleen whales were all but wiped out. Thousands of minke whales were taken annually until the global moratorium on whaling in 1986, after which Japan continued to hunt minkes for what they claim are scientific reasons. Current minke whale population estimates vary from over 700,000 to less than 300,000. Today they're hunted by Iceland, Norway and Japan, whose annual quota is now 935 whales.