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Although 60 percent of the dolphins in U.S. programs are born in captivity, the rest are caught in the wild, which has animal activists up in arms.
Tursiops truncatus (or bottlenose dolphins), the species used in the vast majority of interactive programs, is not endangered in most places, but its method of capture has raised concerns. Animal welfare groups and the marine park industry disagree about whether this practice can ever be humane. Still, the process of netting a single dolphin and lifting it into a boat is unquestionably preferable to the mass drive fisheries practiced in Japan and other parts of the globe.
Some countries–including Mexico, Nicaragua, Australia, China, Malaysia, the Phillippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Chile–have placed bans in their waters on the capture of dolphins for public display. And while it's technically legal to capture dolphins in the U.S., the practice has all but ceased (the last capture permit was issued in 1989). The marine park industry in this country, perhaps sensitive to public outcry, is making every effort to replenish dolphin stocks through captive breeding programs.
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