Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin - Captivity

Captivity

These small cetaceans are commonly found in captivity, causing conservation concerns, including: the effects of removing the animals from their wild populations, survivorship of cetaceans during capture and transport and while in captivity, and the risks to wild populations and ecosystems of accidentally introducing alien species and spreading epizootic diseases, especially when animals have been transported over long distances and are held in sea pens.

Bottlenose dolphins are the most common captive cetaceans on a global scale. Prior to 1980, more than 1,500 bottlenose dolphins were collected from the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas, and more than 550 common and 60 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins were brought into captivity in Japan. By the late 1980s, the United States stopped collecting bottlenose dolphins and the number of captive-born animals in North American aquariums has increased from only 6 percent in 1976 to about 44 percent in 1996.