Striking evidence is emerging that whale meat sales in Japan are crashing, with three-quarters of a "scientific" catch said to have failed to sell at auction.

Monitoring of public auctions of the frozen meat discovered that only about 300 tonnes of an 1211-tonne total found buyers, the Japanese Dolphin and Whale Action Network (IKAN) said.

Whales on a Japanese whaling vessel in the Southern Ocean. Credit:Reuters/Greenpeace

The whalers' organiser, the Institute for Cetacean Research, admitted to Kyodo News it could not achieve anticipated results.

An institute official said "complicated procedures" involved in the tender was a reason for ditching the method and returning to direct one-to-one sales.