Public aquaria and oceanaria maintain thousands of marine species for education and entertainment, with welfare quality varying enormously across facilities and species.
Aquarium welfare exists on a wide spectrum. Accredited facilities with large, enriched exhibits, expert husbandry staff, and active conservation programs can maintain many species with reasonable welfare outcomes. Unaccredited facilities may keep sharks in circular tanks too small for turning, maintain solitary cetaceans, or house species with complex social or behavioral needs in barren environments. Cetacean welfare in particular has generated sustained scientific and public concern — dolphins and orcas have cognitive and social needs that even well-resourced facilities struggle to meet. Consumer choice of accredited facilities and advocacy for cetacean phase-out in captivity are both effective welfare actions.