But the "Save the Whales" campaign was more than a simple fight for a beloved species - it was tied up with the birth of activist environmental politics itself.

Now, however, Japan is apparently poised to lead pro-whaling nations to a simple majority on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which meets in the West Indian state of St Kitts and Nevis starting Friday.

Many environmentalists see their nightmare scenario of hard-won protections for whales under threat - even if the moratorium, which needs a 75 percent majority in the 70-nation body to be overturned - is not in immediate danger.

"The whole struggle to save whales, which began in the early 1970s, really conicided with the birth of the environmental movement," said Joshua Reichert, head of Environmental Programs at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

For young 1980s environmentalists, the whale was a symbol of a new, harmonious relationship between Man and Nature.

Whales "have, in many ways, become an icon for the environmental movement," Reichert said.

There is irony in the fact that whaling battles are raging anew, as green issues, at least in the United States are the flavor of the month, after Hurricane Katrina last year, rising gasoline prices and with a new environmental documentary by former vice president Al Gore doing the rounds.

"In America, most people think this battle has been won," said Buffy Baumann, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace.

"Here we are 20 years later, we have to back into the trenches to work to save these animals."

Not everyone with an eye on international whale stocks agrees.

Japan and Norway for instance, argue that the moratorium has been so successful, in safeguarding and boosting whale stocks, that it is time for commercial whaling to resume - in a sustainable manner.

They would like to return the IWC to the purposes set out in its original charter in 1946 "proper and effective conservation and development of whale stocks."

Currently pro-whaling nations Japan and Iceland, conduct "scientific whaling" allowed under the IWC, and Norway rejects the moratorium altogether. Around 2,000 whales are taken by hunters every year.

Whales are also hunted by aboriginal populations in Canada and Alaska, under an IWC sustenance provision.

Pro-whalers say the polarized IWC seems mired on a question not of conservation - but animal rights.

"Environmentalists would not want an abundant species protected, this has become an issue for animal rights activists," Stefan Asmundsson, the head of Iceland's IWC delegation told AFP.

Many environmentalists argue there is simply no justification to hunt whales, given their iconic status, beauty and reputed high intelligence.

Whaling is also unnecessarily cruel, they say.

Campaign group the Environmental Investigation Agency this week released pictures of a Norwegian hunt, in which it said a harpooned whale took two-and-a-half minutes to die, proving humane culls were impossible.

Gruesome pictures showed the slaughtered beast sluicing decks of a whaling ship with its blood, in an echo of the 1980s campaigns.

Whaling opponents say that since whale oil is no longer a sought after commodity, hunting cannot be justified just for meat and dispute claims by nations like Japan and Norway that it is a staple of the national diet.

"There is no reason for commercial whaling to continue - it is producing products that essentially aren't needed for three extremely wealthy industrialized countries," said Vassili Papastavrou of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Pro-whaling nations dispute that whales are more special than other creatures.

"Whale meat has been eaten by people in Japan, Norway, Greenland, Alaska and other regions for thousands of years," said Gavin Carter, a US-based advisor to the Japanese government.

"It is equally ethical to eat meat from whales, deer or pheasants so long as they are abundant.

"There is little scientific evidence to support the view that whales are especially intelligent animals - pigs, for example, are considered more intelligent than whales."

And are whales really more useful wallowing in the oceans than as a lump of meat on a plate?

"Whale-watching has grown and become quite a profitable business," said Baumann. "Whales are worth a whole lot more alive than dead."

Whale watchers are said to pump 225 million US dollars into Australia's economy each year - figures, pro-whaling advocates say are inflated.

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