The welfare implications of keeping bottlenose dolphins and other cetaceans in captive facilities.
The captivity of dolphins raises profound welfare questions that the industry has long struggled to address adequately. Dolphins are cognitively sophisticated, highly social, and adapted to vast ocean environments. Even the largest aquarium tanks represent an infinitesimally small fraction of their natural world, and the social groupings they live in are artificial and often unstable. Behavioral indicators of poor welfare including aggression, stereotypies, and skin lesions are documented across the industry. The emerging sea sanctuary model — retiring captive dolphins to large, natural-water enclosures — offers a more welfare-compatible alternative for animals that cannot be returned to the wild.