I think a big part of why we envision them as gentle creatures is their looks. The black and white "paint job" has a sort of cute cuddliness to it, moreso than a shark. Silly, but I imagine it is a factor at least.
There was a slightly amusing South Park about this last season. Anyway, I bet if they harvested this whale and sold the meat to the Japanese, they could at least get a pretty penny for it, if not recoup their losses. The Japanese aren't particularly squeamish about eating anything that swims.
The funniest/saddest thing I read was a news report that said the trainer "drowned" in an "incident" with the whale. Like there was this accidental happening that occurred during a minor verbal dispute with the whale or something. They can't just say what happened, the whale attacked and killed the person. Not a huge deal, I don't fault the animal particularly, but they shouldn't be putting trainers into a pen with it any more and charging for admission. We put dogs down every minute of every day. This is no different except for all the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.