Can someone explain why Japan's Fisheries Agency research needs to kill 900 whales?

Question:

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/201…

What kind of "research" is this? Are they intensely studying how long it takes to kill each one?

I am also curious about how this activity benefits the Tsunami survivors...

Answer:

Do you know how many whales are living on earth?
Do you know how many species of whales are living on earth?
Do you know how much and what kind of fish whales consume every year around the world?
Maybe you don't.
How would you make it sure?
This is why research whaling is necessary.

Thanks to our research, Japan has more data than any other country in the world. All of our research result are reported to IWC (International Whaling Commission) every year. Japan, Norway, Iceland, and arctic people in Russia, US, Canada and Denmark (Greenland) are permitted by IWC to catch a limited number of whales. We are catching whales NOT to extinct them but to preserve the entire marine resources on our planet.