Dolphins and whales in captivity and in the wild face welfare challenges unique to highly intelligent, wide-ranging marine mammals.
Cetacean welfare in captivity is one of the clearest cases of species-environment mismatch in zoo settings. Orca and dolphins in the wild live in complex social groups, travel enormous distances, hunt through echolocation, and communicate in sophisticated ways that captive environments cannot replicate. Captive orca show behavioral indicators of chronic stress including stereotypies, aggression, and the collapsed dorsal fin associated with insufficient exercise. Wild cetaceans face different but serious welfare challenges: entanglement in fishing gear causes drowning and injury, vessel noise interferes with communication and navigation, and ingestion of plastic causes slow starvation.