Welfare needs and challenges for captive sea lions and fur seals, including space requirements, social needs, and the ethics of performance-based captivity.
Sea lions and fur seals in captivity face significant welfare challenges arising from the mismatch between their natural ecology and what captive facilities can provide. In the wild they travel vast distances, hunt live prey, and maintain complex social hierarchies. Captive pools offer a fraction of the space, and feeding dead fish from buckets fails to meet cognitive and behavioral needs. Performance-based programs compound welfare concerns by requiring unnatural behaviors under public pressure. Progressive aquariums are transitioning to behavioral enrichment programs that allow natural expression without performance demands.