Whaling question for Activists...?

I watch Whale Wars too. I can't believe that the whaling ships don't have machine guns mounted on the decks to repel pirates. So I guess you couldn't really call me an activist against whaling. The Japanese are operating well within the laws that ban whaling. A certain number can be taken each year for research purposes, and then it would be a terrible waste to just dump the whales back into the ocean. I haven't really seen any published results of their research, but maybe they are doing a real long term study.