While many countries have banned wild dolphin capture for aquariums, the practice continues in several regions, particularly in Japan. The welfare cost of capture and transport is severe, with high mortality rates and significant ongoing captivity harm.
Wild dolphin capture is among the most welfare-compromising sourcing practices in the captive animal industry. The capture process involves chasing entire pods for hours with motor boats, driving them to exhaustion, and then selecting individuals while separating family groups. Family members - highly bonded, long-term social partners - are separated, with some killed and others taken for captivity. The shock of capture after free ocean life, combined with restraint and transport in unfamiliar containers, causes extreme physiological stress. Many dolphins die during capture and transport. Survivors face captive conditions that, compared to their ocean lives, represent profound social and spatial impoverishment. The entire industry chain from capture to display creates compounding welfare harm.