Poll: 92% of Americans Say Dolphins Belong in the Ocean—Why Isn’t Clearwater Marine Aquarium 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 10 dolphins remain trapped in tiny concrete tanks at Clearwater Marine Aquarium—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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium 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%).

Several dolphins have died at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, including PJ, who suffered a fatal skull fracture in 2022 after her head collided with a window within her enclosure. Another dolphin named Halona spent years being shuffled between tanks—from SeaWorld Orlando to two other facilities, back to SeaWorld, and finally to Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where she reportedly died following a severe infection that led to her drowning.

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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium has refused to do so.

“The public has spoken, and Americans are overwhelmingly opposed to keeping dolphins in captivity—yet Clearwater Marine Aquarium 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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium 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 Clearwater Marine Aquarium, they’re housed in tanks so cramped that they can do little more than swim in endless circles. The park also subjects them to stressful encounters with human visitors, in which they’re exploited for paid photo ops.

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.