Poll: 92% of Americans Say Dolphins Belong in the Ocean—Why Isn’t SeaWorld Orlando 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 130 dolphins remain trapped in seven small tanks at SeaWorld parks across the U.S., including in Orlando—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 SeaWorld 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%).
• 63% of Americans oppose breeding programs after learning that some facilities breed dolphins for public interactions and shows through forced artificial insemination.

At least 580 dolphins and whales have died at SeaWorld Orlando and other SeaWorld parks. The company replaces them through its breeding program, in which dolphins are sexually manipulated and sometimes drugged so they can’t fight back when forcibly impregnated. The park has also been repeatedly cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violating the federal Animal Welfare Act, including for failing to promptly separate a dolphin named Rascal from tankmates who raked roughly 30% of his body—including his face—leaving him bloody and trembling. Days later, a visitor posted a video showing a dolphin bloodied after apparently being attacked during a show.

The poll also 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 SeaWorld 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 SeaWorld Orlando 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 concrete tanks swimming in mind-numbingly endless circles, and PETA is calling on SeaWorld to make the smart business move, listen to what the public wants, and release them to seaside sanctuaries.”

In nature, dolphins maintain dynamic relationships with large social networks and can swim up to 60 miles a day. But at SeaWorld Orlando and Discovery Cove, they’re denied everything that’s natural and important to them and crammed into tiny artificial tanks, where they’re subjected to stressful hands-on encounters, in which they’re repeatedly touched and grabbed by strangers with no way to escape.

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.