So now the whales will die of boredom.

Just set the poor creatures free, assholes!

@1 I wish it were that simple. Orcas who have been bread in captivity or lived so long in it can't survive very well in the wild. Each orca pod has it's own language and is rejected by other orcas. They are social creatures, and setting them "free" is certainly a death sentence.

Freedom or limited freedom (as described in some of the earlier articles on slog, a pen in Puget Sound, for instance) or captivity, regardless: a good start to me seems to be that marine parks should make zero profit from their orcas. Tax them, fine them, sue them; arrange it by consent degree or compel it by force of law, the means are secondary. After all this fine reporting on slog, it's clear to me that exploiting these fine creatures for profit is wildly unethical. Removing that profit (and incentive) is a good place to start.

Correction: a good place to start has obviously been information - the documentary Blackfish, the whistle-blowing, and the reporting that The Stranger and other publications are doing is clearly having an impact. As people learn more, they find this whole situation sickening, so you see a perfect storm of political and regulatory pressure, bad media, declining revenues, and declining share prices.

article i read says they are just changing the format of the show http://gizmodo.com/seaworld-cancels-inhu…

i'd accept an acre sized holding pen/sanctuary in the sound, but they'll get out. I think Iceland has rehabilitated some orca so they have freedom to come and go?

Replace them with underemployed, overweight, middle-aged black American men from Michigan-- economic revitalization / entertainment problem solved

Which is racist, @6 or @7?

So how do we save the whales currently in captivity and give them back some degree of happiness/freedom/ a better rest of their life??

@8 both were stupid and pointless. Shut up.

@6, 7: Orcas are black and white, so we'll need to do both.