The Icelandic government decided to continue whaling in despite of national and international protest, announcing the catch and examination of 25 minke whales in June 2004. Despite the promise by the Icelandic government to restrict whaling to 4 weeks only, an extention of the time period was necessary to be able to catch the intended amount, which leads to the conclusion that the minke whale population is smaller than expected.
Almost 2/3 of the meat from last years hunt could not be sold by the beginning of the summer; the meat of 25 animals will add up to this "whale-meat mountain", for which there doesn't seem to be a market.