Sea turtles in aquariums serve both rehabilitation and conservation education roles. Their welfare depends on appropriate tank volume, temperature, and management of injury rehabilitation and release decisions.
Sea turtle welfare in aquarium settings is primarily shaped by the rehabilitation context — most captive sea turtles are there because of human-caused injury (boat strikes, entanglement, ingested plastic). The welfare goal is restoration and release, making the quality of rehabilitation care and the decision-making around release suitability the central welfare considerations. Tank volume is a persistent welfare constraint: sea turtles that migrate thousands of kilometres in the wild cannot have natural movement needs met in any aquarium, making minimising time in rehabilitation and maximising quality of care during that time the primary welfare strategy. For non-releasable turtles — those with permanent injuries or too habituated to human provisioning for safe release — life in captivity requires the largest possible tank, species-appropriate diet, and environmental enrichment that engages natural behaviours. The conservation education value of sea turtle encounters motivates public support for plastic pollution reduction, entanglement prevention, and coastal development control.