to 20,000 dolphins of several species will be taken, in many locations along the coast of Japan, over the course of a six-month season. Coastal whaling communities suffered significant damage as a result of the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011. Bycatch In 2009, published DNA analysis of whale meat from Japanese markets suggested as many as 150 large whales from vulnerable coastal stocks were taken annually as bycatch. Japan legally allows the commercial sale of whales caught incidentally, entangled in fishing nets designed to catch coastal fish. Market surveys also detected migratory whales such as the endangered Humpback and endangered Gray whales, as well as the threatened Finback whale, and the non-endangered Bryde's whales. The impact on J-stock whales, which have protected status under the IWC, seemingly increased with changes in Japanese regulations that legalized the sale of bycatch in 2001. Between 1997 and 2000 only 19–29 whales were annually reported caught as bycatch. The number increased to 89 – 137 annually between 2001 and 2004. However, the study concluded from genetic information that the actual amount of bycatch was similarly high prior to the 2001 regulations but was under-reported. Up to 46% of the samples tested proved to be J-stock. Prior to the 2001 change in regulations, fishermen could not legally sell minke whales to commercial firms and were supposed to sell them locally or destroy them and report the incident. The high percentage of J-stock bycatch presents a significant threat including the possibility of extinction within a few decades according to IWC population estimates. Whaling in coastal Japan In Japan, several whale species have been targets of illegal captures, including humpback, minke, sperm whales, western gray, the endangered North Pacific right, and northern fin whale while utilizing harpoons for dolphin hunts or intentionally drive whales into nets. Reports are later filed with administrative organs or research institutions as cases of entanglements where fishermen tried their best to save whales. Products from internationally protected species' meat can also be found on markets even today mostly originating as "by-products" of entanglements, and there has been a case in which it was revealed that at least some humpbacks with other species were illegally hunted in EEZs of anti-whaling nations such as off the coast of Mexico or South Africa, and the whalers tried to transport the catch to Japan by hiring vessels from other countries and even trying to