Numbers matter, although it's fiercely disputed  By Andrew Darby
April 20, 2005  Norway is the only country that conducts
commercial whaling legally, because it has not agreed to the
International Whaling Commission's moratorium. This week
Norwegian fishermen began their hunt for a quota of 797 minke
whales in the North Atlantic.  In the Antarctic, there is
evidence that some whale numbers are rapidly recovering from
last century's badly managed slaughter. But population sizes are
fiercely disputed by scientists at the International Whaling
Commission.  Minkes: Japan argues that under a return to
commercial whaling it could sustainably kill 14,570 minke whales
over five years. It relies on a long-standing population
estimate of about 760,000. Australian scientists believe there
may be as few as half that number.  Humpbacks: The coastal
migrations of the cosmopolitan humpback make counting easier,
and they appear to be reviving rapidly. The east Australian
stock, hunted down to as few as 200, was growing at ab