Marine mammals in zoological collections include dolphins, seals, sea lions, polar bears, and otters. Welfare science and public scrutiny have driven significant changes in how these animals are kept and displayed.
Marine mammal welfare in zoological collections is a field in transition. The dramatic shift in public and institutional attitudes toward orca captivity has not uniformly extended to other marine mammals. Bottlenose dolphin shows persist in many facilities with less welfare consideration than the orca debate prompted. Seals and sea lions - more physiologically adaptable to captive conditions - still face welfare challenges from social group management and behavioral restriction. The post-Blackfish era has created genuine welfare improvements in some facilities while leaving others largely unchanged. The welfare question for any specific marine mammal species is whether the facility can meet the animal's fundamental needs - social, spatial, behavioral, and physiological - and honest assessment of this question remains inconsistent across the industry.