LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Greenland's aboriginal people are selling around a quarter of their subsistence whale catch to local supermarkets for profit, an undercover investigation by an animal welfare group showed on Tuesday.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) said hidden cameras probing the North Atlantic island's whaling industry found that not only were whalers selling catch intended for local consumption to foreigners, but at least 15 tonnes of whale meat caught over the past two years was unsold.

"Our investigation found supermarket freezers full of whale products and stockpiles of unsold whale meat from 2006," a member of the WSPA's undercover team said.

Aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas were introduced in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to allow indigenous people to hunt a set number of whales for consumption by their community to reduce its risk of extinction.

The IWC banned commercial whaling the same year, though IWC member governments are lobbying to have this lifted.

Greenland's Inuit community, which hunts mostly minke and fin whales, has been granted a hunt quota of 233 whales a year, the WSPA said. This compares to a quota of nearly 1,000 whales Japan awarded itself for "scientific research" last year.

Greenland supermarkets are allowed sell whale meat, but are encouraged by the IWC to offer it exclusively to local residents.

The WSPA said privately-owned meat processor Arctic Green Food buys between 40 and 50 whales annually from Greenland's subsistence whalers, and sells the meat in supermarkets for some 20 times higher than wholesale prices.

This whale meat is available for purchase by foreign nationals in over 100 supermarkets across Greenland, in a trade worth millions of dollars, the WSPA said. And despite the stock pile of unsold whale meat, Greenland, a self-governing state of Denmark, is seeking to increase its subsistence quota.

"This investigation comes as Denmark plans to petition at this year's IWC meeting for 10 humpback whales to be added to (Greenland's) quota," the member of the WSPA's undercover team said.

The WSPA is the world's largest alliance of humane societies and animal protection organisations, representing over 900 groups in 153 countries. The IWC will present their findings at this year's IWC meeting in Santiago, Chile.

To read the WSPA's report or see a video of its investigation, go to http://www.wspa.org.uk (Reporting by Michael Szabo; Editing by Jon Boyle)

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