Annual dolphin drive hunts in Taiji, Japan, select some dolphins for captivity and kill others for meat. The welfare implications of both practices have drawn international attention.
The Taiji dolphin drive hunt raises overlapping welfare concerns for different groups of animals. Killed dolphins experience welfare harms from the drive itself and the killing process. Dolphins selected for captivity face a different welfare trajectory: capture stress, sea pen conditioning, long-distance transport, and lifetime confinement in aquarium pools far removed from their social and ecological context. The global aquarium industry's historical participation in purchasing Taiji-caught dolphins has been a significant driver of the hunt's economics. Many aquariums have now committed to not purchasing Taiji dolphins, reducing demand for the captive selection process.