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The population for blue whales in that article is way overstated. The IWC figure is 400-1400 worldwide. While they have not been officially hunted since 1965, the Soviet Union whalers did hunt them, and there has been some private pirate whaling of blue whales also.
Any hunting scheme must be absolutely foolproof to assure no killing of blue whales. The population off California seems to be recovering, but not the Antarctic population. The Japanese claim that the Minke whales and furbeater seals occupied the eco-niche resulting from the kill-off of the blue whales, so the krill is not available for the blue whales. That should be considered conjectural, IMO.
Add to that list of whaling nations Peru, which operated whaling under a Japanese contract at one point.
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