Marine parks and aquatic entertainment venues keep cetaceans, pinnipeds, and other marine animals in conditions that have been shown to compromise welfare significantly.
Aquatic parks represent one of the clearest cases where entertainment and animal welfare are irreconcilable. The cognitive complexity, social depth, and spatial requirements of cetaceans cannot be met in concrete tanks. Orca pods in the wild have lifelong bonds and home ranges of hundreds of kilometers. The captive environment does not merely limit these things — it eliminates them entirely. The documentary Blackfish brought this welfare evidence to mass public attention with significant regulatory consequences.