National Aquarium in Hot Water: PETA Demands Proof of Seaside Sanctuary or Return of Donation

For Immediate Release:
March 6, 2026

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

PETA is calling on the National Aquarium in Baltimore to demonstrate that actual progress is being made toward the seaside sanctuary that it publicly pledged ten years ago that it would build for the dolphins in its tanks—or return the $10,000 donation PETA made in support of the move, plus interest.

For more than 20 years, PETA protested dolphin captivity at the National Aquarium, but paused the campaign in 2016 after then-CEO John Racanelli announced plans to transfer the dolphins to a seaside sanctuary by the end of 2020. Yet nearly a decade after making the announcement and accepting PETA’s donation, that sanctuary still doesn’t exist—and despite PETA pushing for transparency, the National Aquarium has given no meaningful updates to the public or donors, only recently telling PETA that it was still “exploring options” without providing any timeline or specifics.

“The National Aquarium made a commitment to its donors and to these dolphins, who should already be in a seaside sanctuary where they could swim freely, dive deep, and feel the ocean currents,” says PETA President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the National Aquarium to demonstrate real, measurable progress toward giving these dolphins the life they were promised, or return PETA’s donation and stop misleading the public.”

In nature, dolphins choose their own partners, swim up to 60 miles a day, and form long-lasting friendships within their pods. In a 2016 op-ed, Racanelli declared that the transfer is “right for the dolphins,” acknowledging that they “thrive when they can form social groups, have opportunities to express natural behaviors and live in a habitat as similar as possible to that for which nature so superbly designed them”—all of which is thwarted in captivity.

PETA points out that while the National Aquarium stalls, momentum elsewhere is rapidly accelerating: Canada and France have banned cetacean captivity; Mexico passed a bill that bans dolphin breeding, performances, and confinement in concrete tanks; and the Miami Seaquarium closed after more than 50 years. Belugas have been relocated from a marine park in China to a sanctuary in Iceland, dolphins once confined in Indonesia have been rehabilitated and released into the wild, and a new seaside sanctuary is under development in Nova Scotia, where the French government is now seeking to send orcas formerly held at Marineland Antibes.

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.