Three-quarters of more than 1,200 tons of meat from whales hunted by Japan in the Northwest Pacific remain unsold, although the organizer began inviting bids for the meat last year, an activist group says.

The Institute of Cetacean Research has organized 13 rounds of public auctions since October, with 908.8 tons, or 75.0 percent of the 1,211.9 tons offered, going unsold, according to a report compiled by freelance journalist Junko Sakuma and released by the Iruka & Kujira (Dolphin & Whale) Action Network. Most of the meat is apparently from recent catches.

The ICR put the meat of minke, Bryde’s and sei whales up for auction, aiming to increase consumption of whale meat and generate more sales to pay for the hunts. It will go back to negotiating sales on a one-to-one basis, as it did prior to 2011, by entrusting the task to Tokyo-based ship charterer Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd.

“We could not achieve the results we had anticipated,” an ICR official said, adding the “complicated procedures” involved in the tender is another reason for ditching the method.

The ICR found that the bids submitted by wholesalers and food manufacturers were often lower than the lowest price it had set for bids or that no bids were submitted.

As a result, the meat from 30.4 percent of the minke whales, 81.2 percent of the Bryde’s whales and 78.2 percent of the sei whales has remained unsold, according to the report.

Japan has been catching whales in the name of research in the Northwest Pacific and the Antarctic Ocean after the International Whaling Commission imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982.

Although the Fisheries Agency says the whales are caught for scientific research purposes, critics of the annual practice call it a cover for commercial whaling on the grounds that the meat is sold on the market.

The government has been providing an annual subsidy for whaling activities as sales of whale meat alone are insufficient to cover the costs.