Poll: 92% of Americans Say Dolphins Belong in the Ocean—Why Isn’t Dolphin Quest Hawaii Listening?

For Immediate Release:
September 10, 2026

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

An overwhelming 92% of Americans say dolphins belong in the ocean, not in tanks, according to a new survey conducted by The Harris Poll of 2,001 U.S. adults commissioned by PETA. Yet 13 bottlenose dolphins remain trapped in tiny enclosures at Dolphin Quest Hawaii at the Hilton Waikoloa Village—and hundreds more are confined at marine parks, resorts, and shoddy aquariums across five states nationwide—putting the industry sharply at odds with the public it tries to sell tickets to.

Every additional survey result widens the gulf between what the public wants and what Dolphin Quest Hawaii is doing:

• 80% support releasing the dolphins currently held at marine parks and resorts when possible or sending them to seaside sanctuaries.
• 70% of those who have visited a marine park or resort in the U.S. say they have concerns about the dolphins there. The greatest concerns include the small size of the dolphins’ enclosure (42%), the condition of their tanks (30%), the dolphins’ mental health (37%), mistreatment by handlers (28%), and injury and illness (19%).

At Dolphin Quest Hawaii, visitors have described watching dolphins swimming endlessly in their small enclosures and have noted that they “have very little space”—a far cry from their natural ocean habitats. Some of the dolphins displayed at Dolphin Quest Hawaii were abducted from their families and ocean homes decades ago, while others were bred for stressful and dangerous interactions with humans, including “swim-with” and “paint-with” programs, as well as feeding and petting encounters.

The poll revealed that more than half of Americans (57%) said that learning that a marine park or resort keeps dolphins for entertainment would negatively affect their view of it. And 63% of Americans would think more highly of a marine park or resort that publicly committed to sending dolphins from its facility to seaside sanctuaries—yet Dolphin Quest Hawaii has ignored repeated requests from PETA and the public to do so.

“The public has spoken, and Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to keeping dolphins in captivity—yet Dolphin Quest Hawaii is covering its ears and clinging to a cruel relic of the past,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “These intelligent, far-ranging animals don’t belong in cramped enclosures swimming in mind-numbingly endless circles, and PETA is calling on Dolphin Quest Hawaii to make the smart business move, listen to what the public wants, and release them to seaside sanctuaries.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment“—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

Survey Method:

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of PETA from July 21-22, 2026, among 2,001 adults ages 18 and older. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.7 percentage points using a 95% confidence level.

For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact PETA at (757) 622-7382 or [email protected].