The Captivity Industry

Fact: The dolphin smile is a fixed feature of their anatomy—dolphins smile even when dead. Dolphins and other cetaceans suffer stress and frustration when kept in captivity, particularly when there is no enrichment or when they are housed with incompatible animals. Medications are routinely given to dolphins to treat ulcers and other medical conditions associated with mental and physical stress.

Orcas are inherently unsuited to being held in captivity, due to their ranging habits, size, longevity, intelligence, sociality, and acoustic needs. Orca sociality is complex and family-oriented—when a mother is separated from her calf or when family units are otherwise disrupted, as is common in captivity, the animals experience profound suffering. No tank offers orcas enough space or ever could. Tanks are usually only 100–140 feet long and 25–35 feet deep. In the wild, orcas—which are 6,000–12,000 pounds and 18–24 feet long—can travel 100 miles in a day and dive up to 1,000 feet deep.

Fact: There are no self-sustaining captive populations and animals are needed from the wild to maintain genetic viability. Bottlenose dolphins, orcas, and beluga whales are the only cetaceans who have been bred with some success, but even these do not have self-sustaining captive populations. Also, captive-bred offspring are never returned to the wild, a required step for any breeding program claiming a conservation purpose.

Fact: The education offered at dolphinariums often lacks a discussion of threats facing wild cetaceans beyond “pollution,” as information about threats such as hunting, marine noise, or oil and gas exploration and extraction might offend some people who visit from other countries or who work for the military or certain industries. Certainly, the threat live capture poses to targeted cetacean populations is never discussed.

Claims that captive cetacean performances provide educational benefits to the public and advance conservation science are also false. For example, viewing cetaceans held in concrete tanks that in no way resemble their natural environments, and who are trained to behave in ways that they would not in the wild, does not provide any insight into wild cetacean biology, behavior, or ecological role. If anything, it promotes misinformation about these species. Similarly, scientific research involving captive cetaceans has done little—especially in recent years—to advance scientists’ understanding of cetaceans in the wild. Most of the published scientific research from captive orca facilities addresses captive breeding practices, such as artificial insemination. This research has no conservation benefit, as this technology is used only in captivity.

Fact: Most surveys have shown that the overwhelming majority of patrons of dolphinariums go to be entertained, not educated. The facilities know this and provide entertainment, in the form of shows, tricks, and stunts. They may throw out a few facts and figures (some of which are incorrect or misleading to mask the impact of captivity on these animals) to make people feel good about why they are there, but entertainment is the overriding reason for the existence of these attractions. The type of education that is provided is often misleading—that cetacean capture and/or captivity is acceptable and that tail-walking on water or leaping up to jump through a hoop are natural behaviors.

Fact: The money spent by captive facilities and subsidiary entities on conservation projects is miniscule compared to the profits that are made with dolphin shows, swim-with encounters, and other entertainments. Very few facilities even have conservation programs, and those that do spend only a fraction of their revenue on conservation or stranding responses.

Fact: Cetaceans have evolved to live and die in the ocean and have their place in the marine ecosystem. Meeting and dealing with natural challenges, including finding food, is their “job”—without this job, life for these intelligent animals is at best boring and at worst stressful. Many captive cetaceans—depending on the species—do not live nearly as long as their wild counterparts. Given the threats facing wild cetaceans, such as predators, pollution, and parasites, this raises the question of why these supposedly “protected” animals have similar or worse mortality rates compared to their wild cousins. The answer could be a combination of things—chronic stress, self-harm (such as grinding teeth, which leads to poor health), ingestion of foreign objects, abnormal aggression from other animals, or lack of maternal skill by mothers who were born in captivity themselves. For some cetacean species, mortality rates in captivity are far higher than in the wild. Orcas fare particularly poorly in captivity. The average lifespan of an orca in the wild is 30 years for males and 50 years for females. Of the orcas held in captivity (captive-bred or wild-caught) since 1964, most have died in their teens and 20s; only a handful have survived past 40 years of age, and even fewer have lived into their 50s.

Fact: This argument is often put forth by dolphinariums that have sourced their animals from Japanese dolphin drive hunts. The drive hunts are incredibly brutal—with animals chased, herded, and trapped in bays and coves, and then killed for their meat and other products. About four decades ago, recognizing the rewards to be gained from selling live dolphins to dolphinariums, the drive hunters started allowing these facilities to select some of the trapped dolphins at a price far higher than that of a dead dolphin. It is possible, however, that without the lucrative demand from dolphinariums the drives would have long since been discontinued.

Fact: Whale and dolphin advocates do not want to “shut down” marine theme parks. On the contrary, several marine theme parks have demonstrated for decades that they have many entertaining attractions other than cetaceans to draw tourists to the area. In fact, removing inhumane cetacean shows from their repertoires could broaden the audience of tourists interested in supporting these theme parks. In such a scenario, cetaceans currently held in captivity could be moved to seaside sanctuaries for a dignified retirement. Sanctuaries can provide much-needed space and more natural surroundings, while the animals would continue to receive care from trainers and training for husbandry and veterinary behaviors.

Fact: Cetaceans are wild animals, wholly aquatic, with no particular interest in or connection to terrestrial mammals, including humans. Not harming them sometimes means leaving them alone. Interactions with cetaceans in the wild should be minimized and cetaceans do not belong in captivity at all.

Fact: When swimmers enter the water to try to swim with free-ranging cetaceans, this is an added level of invasion of their living space—from two dimensions (on a boat at the water’s surface) to three (in the water with them). The most common activity free-ranging cetaceans are pursuing when swimmers try to swim with them is resting (otherwise human swimmers wouldn’t be able to keep up with them). So swimmers are essentially disturbing their sleep. This can have long-term negative impacts. The only time it is appropriate to swim with whales and dolphins in the wild is when they approach people. If, conversely, people approach them, then the interaction is probably disturbing them.

Fact: In nature, whales and dolphins tend to have complex and stable social bonds—strangers are very rarely encountered. Captive whales and dolphins in normal performance exhibits have relatively long-term, stable bonds with their trainers. However, dolphins in swim-with attractions must interact with many strangers every day. This is not natural and adds additional stress to an already stressful situation.