They do actually do do research and since their data is objective rather then "whale hugger" it is pretty reliable.
As to what they do with the whales afterwords, there is a small market for whale meat. People do still eat it, mostly older people, but at a harvest rate of three hundred a year that is not a lot of meat.
The hunt is mostly an "Up yours!"
The reason it’s called ‘research’ or ‘scientific whaling’ is because of a compromise back when the hippies and landlubbers hijacked the International Whaling Commission.
As I expect you know, there is more than one species of whale in the oceans. Many are not endangered, and these are the ones currently being hunted. Back then the hippies had to admit there was no reason to ban the hunting of all whales and so they agreed to ban the hunting of endangered whales while non-endangered whales could still be hunted, only it was called research.
-A nice stepping stone towards a complete ban on whaling since the whalers didn’t realize the hippies were acting in bad faith and have since used the ‘research’ label to attack sustainable whaling.
PS: Whales are delicious :)