Captive dolphins in marine parks face welfare challenges from confinement that cannot replicate their natural range, social structures, or cognitive needs.
Captive dolphin welfare has been one of the most publicly contested areas of zoo ethics over the past three decades. The shift in public perception driven by documentation of wild capture practices and the behavioral indicators of captive distress has made dolphin shows commercially untenable in many markets. The welfare case against captive dolphin entertainment is strong: these are wide-ranging, cognitively sophisticated animals whose natural behaviors — echolocation in open water, complex social hunting, long-distance travel — cannot be approximated in pool environments. The question of whether high-quality sanctuaries offering sea pen environments represent an acceptable alternative for existing captive populations is more nuanced. For animals born in captivity and unable to survive release, well-managed sea pen environments with minimal performance requirements represent genuine welfare improvement.