If you’ve been told that “scientists disagree with cetacean captivity”, please know that this assertion is being drawn from a small handful of papers written by a small group that does not represent the entire cetacean science community.
These papers are also designed to market sea sanctuaries as a solution to the welfare issues they claim exists - but they do not acknowledge the significant conflict of interest that exists as Lori Marino gains a decent salary from the Whale Sanctuary Project.
Dr. Jason Bruck wrote a great summary of this - and links to papers and videos:
These are the many papers now challenging Marino review papers (that have no data to back their claims- Lori does not collect data for herself. She misrepresents what other studies say to fit her narrative).
Her paper: https://whalesanctuaryproject.org/wp-content/uploads/Chronic-stress-captive-orcas-Marino-et-al-2020.pdf
Her paper: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34534428/
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/7/1118
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/17/2707
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6cj9473p
Hence there are no data to back up her claims and there is quite a bit of literature pointing out that not only are marine mammals starting to outlive their wild counterparts dramatically.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article/290/2009/20231895/104384/Survival-improvements-of-marine-mammals-in
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mms.12601
But that they actively anticipate participating in training sessions.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/zoo.21400
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0168159118300352
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6688123/
And that not allowing calving has negative welfare implications for the whole group…especially older animals.
https://www.animalbehaviorandcognition.org/uploads/journals/7/06.Hill_etal_FINAL.pdf
Finally, not one but two peer reviewed papers have outlined how GFAS sanctuaries can be detrimental to the welfare of cetaceans.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/2/335
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5636/6/1/4
As for the conservation implications of losing these animals- where do you think we ground truth and test new technologies to help protect wild animals?
Finally here is an in-depth systematic takedown of Marino’s last peer reviewed paper.
View the review history for An update on captive cetacean welfare
