It was, if you'll forgive my saying so, a whale of a coincidence. There I was in Tokyo just as a particularly controversial session of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was about to begin and I switched on the television in my hotel to find myself watching ... Whale Rider.

I couldn't help wondering what all those Japanese clamouring for their traditional right to eat whale meat would make of this portrayal of whales as supernatural beings.

As it happens, I got the answer to that question the next day, at a briefing from the director of the Oceania division of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Misawa Yasushi.

We were supposed to talk about tourism but he quickly moved on to wider topics, including the general relationship between our two countries, which he described as very good, and the problem areas, notably whaling.

On whaling, his message was that if New Zealand wanted to argue a case for protection of whales on conservation grounds, then, while the two countries might disagree on what constituted a sustainable harvest, there was at least room for dialogue. But if the case for protecting whales was an emotional one, based on a view of whales as sacred beings, then there was really nothing to discuss.

It's easy to understand why Japan would take that view.

After all, if whales are protected on conservation grounds then at some point the population of some species is going to reach a level at which all parties agree that it can sustain a harvest.

But if whaling is banned on some semi-religious basis, then no matter how large the whale population grows it will always be sacrilegious to consider killing them, and that's hardly a basis for negotiation.

Personally I've always had a problem with whales and dolphins being regarded as spiritual beings in a different category from other animals. They're not. They're graceful, they appear to be intelligent, they have many appealing characteristics ... but they are still animals.

I once spent most of a day standing in the water in a wetsuit cradling a distressed dolphin in my arms. It was a huge relief when a Department of Conservation launch finally arrived with a boat from Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World close behind.

However, the first thing DoC did was to send a chap with a clipboard across in a dinghy so I could fill out a form. They then instructed the Kelly Tarlton's team to put the dolphin in a sling and hoist it aboard. No sooner was it lifted from the water than the animal went into spasms and died.

I was very upset. But I was still aware that it was not the death of a sacred creature or a family member. It was the death of a beautiful animal. And an animal, by the way, that is a carnivore.