Dolphins are among the most cognitively sophisticated animals on Earth, yet they face welfare threats from commercial fishing bycatch, captivity for entertainment, and the increasingly noisy ocean environments that disrupt their communication and navigation.
Dolphin welfare challenges span both wild and captive contexts. In the wild, the combination of bycatch mortality, chronic noise pollution, and direct human interaction (swimming and boat tours) creates compounding welfare pressure. Noise pollution causes dolphins to alter their communication - essentially forcing them to shout to be heard - which may disrupt social bonds and foraging efficiency. In captivity, the intelligence that makes dolphins fascinating to observe also makes their confinement profoundly damaging: animals capable of complex social lives and vast home ranges are reduced to small pools with stereotypic social groups. Captive dolphins die significantly younger than wild counterparts and show high rates of stereotypic behavior, gastric ulcers, and immune compromise.