Captive cetaceans face profound welfare challenges from confinement in environments that cannot meet their complex needs. Understanding the welfare evidence informs positions on marine park attendance.
Cetacean captivity welfare represents one of the most compelling cases for the impossibility of meeting a highly intelligent, wide-ranging species' needs in captivity. Orca welfare is particularly problematic: captive orcas live in social groupings that are incompatible with natural family structures, cannot travel the distances that are central to wild orca behavior, and show health abnormalities (collapsed dorsal fins, dental destruction from bar-biting) that are rare or absent in wild populations. The welfare evidence has driven public opinion and legislative changes in multiple jurisdictions. Sanctuaries that provide large sea pens as retirement facilities for performing cetaceans offer significantly better welfare than tank-based facilities.