Captivity Requirements

While NMFS is responsible for issuing permits under the MMPA, their jurisdiction ends once an animal has either been captured or imported for captivity. At this point, the United State's Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) takes over. They then set standards for the care of captive marine mammals under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The USDA took over the responsibility (from NMFS) for setting standards and enforcing regulations for captive marine mammal facilities in 1994, including “swim-with-the-dolphin” and other interaction programs.

The AWA specifies regulations for the following areas:

• Space (i.e., tank size) requirements
• Animal health and husbandry (food/diet quality, water quality, and sanitation)
• Employees, attendees, veterinarians
• Animal housing arrangements
• Transportation and handling

For example, according to the space requirements set by the AWA, enclosures housing a bottlenose dolphin only require about 24 feet (7 meters) in length (or 4x the average adult length; whichever is greater) and about 6 feet (2 meters) in depth (or ½ the average adult length; whichever is greater) – this is far from adequate! Marine mammals are extremely energetic and inquisitive. In the wild, some species swim up to 90 miles (or about 150 km) per day, reach speeds of up to 30 mi/hr (or about 50 km/hr), and dive up to 1000 feet (about 300 meters) into the depths of the ocean to fulfill their complex social and foraging behaviors.

Instead of U.S. agencies setting inadequate regulations for capture, import, and housing of marine mammals, these animals should no longer be captured or bred for entertainment purposes and captive marine mammal exhibits should be phased out in the future.

Animal Welfare Act of 1979 (PDF, 151 KB)