A new report by World Animal Protection has outlined the massive scale of the multibillion dollar dolphin entertainment industry. Despite the 1993 feature film "Free Willy" giving the anti-captivity movement a boost and the more recent documentary "Blackfish" resulting in a considerable backlash against the industry, the report still identified 3,603 cetaceans in captivity globally, of which 3,029 are dolphins. Venues capitalize on the animals in a variety of ways from displays to interaction activities and it estimates that all captive dolphins in the tourism industry generate between $1.1 and $5.5 billion annually.
336 facilities in 54 countries are known to keep dolphins and 60% of all captive animals worldwide are found in just five countries: China (23%), Japan (16%), the United States (13%), Mexico (8%) and Russia (5%). Even though opinion has started to turn against marine parks in the West at least, partly due to phenomenal success of "Blackfish", China has continued to dramatically increase its venue count. The report was able to identify 707 animals kept at Chinese facilities while Japan had the second-highest total with 497.
Despite changing attitudes in the United States, American marine parks are still keeping 400 dolphins in captivity. When it comes to geographical regions rather than specific countries, the Mexico, Caribbean, Bahamas and Bermuda (MCBB) region accounts for 19% of all captive dolphins globally with The Bahamas coming first for the average number of animals per facility. The report emphasized the difficulty of the situation with releases of captive-bred dolphins deemed unrealistic due to their artificial upbringing and lack of a natural skillset.
It recommended an increase in welfare standards for captive dolphins, particularly in regard to enclosure size, diet, socialization, the prevention of breeding and environmental enrichment. A bottlenose dolphin has a natural range of 100 square kilometres in the wild and the average enclosure in marine parks is 77,000 times smaller than that, highlighting the difficulties in improving conditions. There are some positives, however, with demand for dolphin entertainment wavering among the public in some countries. An increasing number are also introducing more prohibitive legislation which is prompting some venues to take positive steps forward such as stopping shows and interactions, ending captive breeding and transferring animals to seaside sanctuaries.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
Countries by number of dolphins in captivity in 2019
