I think we are right in telling countries that they should not eat whales, dolphins and porpoises. As a matter of fact, Japan doesn't even kill the dolphins and porpoises to eat them. They are extremely high in mercury and are dangerous to eat. They slaughter them to hide the fact that they sell about 3 million dollars worth of them to marine parks and places like that horrible Atlantis resort where you can "swim with the dolphins!".
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-dawn/is-japans-dolphin-slaughter-really-for-food_b_4656345.html Be prepared to see what look like striped dolphins dead in a boat and blood red water.
Japan says it whales for cultural reasons and eats whales for cultural reasons. However, they didn't really start to eat whale in Japan until WWII and it pretty much stopped 20 years after that, and it was just eaten to augment diet during occupation. A good portion of whale is still fed to school children but very few of them like to eat it. Pretty much just the people who grew up between WWII and the 60s are the ones who ever buy whale, and that group of people is starting to die out. There is no cultural tradition to break.