Nov. 2, 2005 — Norwegian whale hunters failed to catch the permitted number of whales this year, Norway's Ministry of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs said on Tuesday, a day after the 2005 whaling season ended.

The 30 whaling boats that participated in this year's hunt only culled 639 minke whales out of a record high quota of 796, ministry official Halvard Johansen told AFP.

This is the second year in a row that Norwegian whale hunters, who generally call for small annual increases in the whaling quotas, have not managed to fill their catch quota.

"This does not mean that we will reduce the quota next year," Johansen said, adding that weather conditions around Jan Mayen — a barren island in the Norwegian Sea — were to blame for the lackluster results.

Only five whales were harpooned in this zone out of a permitted 145 culls.

"The weather has not been good, and since oil prices have increased significantly the whalers haven't wanted to travel so far for such an unpredictable result," Johansen said.

This year's quota was the largest allowed since Norway re-launched its commercial whale hunting program in 1993 in defiance of an International Whaling Commission moratorium on the practice, in place since 1986. The resumption touched off a wave of international protests.

The Norwegian government has claimed that hunting the minke whale poses no threat to the species, which is estimated to number about 100,000 in the North Atlantic.

Japan, which along with Iceland uses a loophole in the moratorium to hunt whales for so-called "scientific research," said last week that it plans to expand its whaling in the Antarctic Ocean to humpback and fin whales, as well as nearly double its catch of minke whales.

For the first time ever, no inspectors were present on the Norwegian whaling ships during the 2005 whaling season. The boats were instead equipped with "blue boxes" that counted the number of culls.