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Wild-captured dolphins must endure significant training to adapt to captivity. They must learn to accept a new diet of dead fish, as well as to undergo a variety of invasive operations, such as tube-feeding and medical examinations.
Dolphins used in tourism are usually bred in captivity and separated from their mothers at an early age. This traumatises both mother and calf and inhibits natural learning. Captive dolphin tanks are 200,000 times smaller than a dolphin’s natural range.
The majority of the dolphins in captivity are held in the United States, Japan, and China. Dolphins are highly intelligent, social, and sentient animals who require freedom, stimulation, and social interaction to thrive.
Dolphins in captivity face numerous negative consequences that affect their welfare. When captured from the wild, they experience high levels of stress and trauma, leading to health issues such as stomach ulcers and decreased immune function.
Although seals and sea lions may breed readily in captivity, only a few species are held in numbers large enough to sustain a breeding population. Some species of whales and dolphins, on the other hand, do not breed well in captivity and some have never produced surviving offspring.
There isn’t a broad consensus on how long dolphins live in the wild versus captivity. One study pegged dolphin life expectancy in captivity at around 30 years of age, while another produced the figure of around 12 years. Yet dolphins have been known to live well into their 60s.
Scientific evidence shows that dolphins are intelligent, sentient animals which means they can feel emotions like love and joy, but they also experience pain, fear, and suffering. Bottlenose dolphins can live for over 40 years, so that's 40 years of misery in captivity.
From the cruelty behind swimming with dolphins to the question about where captive dolphins come from, this Dolphins in Captivity FAQ answers it all. Around the world, more than 3,000 dolphins have been bred in captivity or taken from the wild to be used for entertainment in tourism venues.
With growing awareness about major welfare and ethical concerns for cetaceans in captivity, a growing number of places around the world are moving to ban/phase out the captivity of dolphins and whales.
No dolphin can thrive in captivity. To understand why dolphins suffer so much in captivity, let's compare their lives to dolphins who live in the wild.