Conservation groups are pushing for a single global quota for the killing of whales, to be set by the International Whaling Commission.
The IWC is to meet next week in Morocco.
Greenpeace, the Pew Environment Group and the World Wildlife Fund International are putting pressure on the 88 governments attending the meeting for a limit to be placed on the number of whales being killed for scientific purposes.
Instead of allowing countries to determine their own quotas, WWF International says governments should let them be set by the IWC.
Conservation groups also want an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean and no international trade of whale meat outside the areas where the mammals were caught.
