Has a baleen whale ever been kept in captivity for any length of time? If so was it successfully released or did it die?
there have been several instances of young baleen whales running afoul of something and being captured for rehabilitation, yes! they were mostly gray whales.
which makes sense, gray whales are slow enough to get caught in the first place and hardy enough to not immediately stress themselves to death over being poked and put in a tank (as long as hundreds of pounds of delicious shellfish are on offer, anyway)
none of them were ever kept very long, they were rehabilitated to a healthy weight and then released. (healthy weight for a juvenile gray whale is almost 20,000 lbs. BIG baby)
this lives in the post now
