WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A genetic study of whales suggests many more have been slaughtered than believed in the whaling frenzy that began in the 18th century, and shows populations have not recovered enough to allow hunting to resume, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

The International Whaling Commission may be underestimating by tenfold the number of the giant mammals that lived in the seas before whaling began, the researchers said.

"The genetics we've done of whales in the North Atlantic says that, before whaling, there were a total of 800,000 to 900,000 humpback, fin and minke whales -- far greater numbers than anybody ever thought," Stephen Palumbi, who led the study at Harvard University's Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, said in a statement.

Such evidence is sure to add to the already heated and emotional debate over the future of whaling.

The study, published in Friday's issue of the journal Science, suggests the worldwide humpback population could have been as high as 1.5 million -- more than 10 times the IWC's estimate of 100,000.
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