Norway and Japan are two countries that have been fighting for their right to hunt these whales. Both of these countries have been hunting whales for hundreds, or thousands of years. It is a huge part of their food culture. But the hunting of whales was made illegal about 10 years ago. People still poach these animals for their blubber which is eaten in Japan and their meat with is made into sushi and steaks in both Norway and Japan. Whale meat costs a whole lot of money on the black market fetching up to $250 a pound. (Most whales weigh about three tons.) People have been poaching these whales so much that they are on the highly-endangered list. If the level of poaching that is going on now continues than these two species of whales will likely be extinct.