I am so very very disheartened to read Paul Watson's words. There is no justification for captivity. A bigger and fancier pool is still a pool. Would any of us want to be locked forever into a house, never to be let outside into the world, no matter how perfectly designed the house was to meet our needs? The healthy psychological needs of a human cannot be met by even the most perfect of houses, and this is true of all species, especially those species even more social than our own - such as canines and cetaceans.
The fact that tens of thousands of whales and dolphins are still slaughtered every year ought to keep Watson fighting to stop slaughter - not promote imprisonment.
There was a whale named Keiko that was returned to the wild after decades of captivity. Yes it was expensive, yes it was a struggle every inch of the way, yes he ended up dying of pneumonia after being freed. But he died a free whale, hunting on his own, and communicating with other whales. He died a whale who had freedom, but freedom had no bearing on his demise - remember Bjossa? She was transferred screaming from the Vancouver Aquarium to Sea World, where she later died from a lung infection. Died in a tank, captive in a strange place, alone amongst humans, despite all human intervention.
Thank you Barry, for your ever sharp wit and insight - you never disappoint! And thank you Annelise, for fighting intelligently and diligently for whales, and for never giving up. I wish I could say the same for Paul Watson, but it does sound as though he has given up, and that is a true shame.