World Dolphin Day highlights threats and new protections
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Nine dolphin species are currently endangered or critically endangered, according to the IUCN, and World Dolphin Day on September 12 aims to raise awareness of the challenges they face.
Sea Shepherd, a marine conservation nonprofit, established the awareness day in 2022. Recent assessments show the Lahille’s bottlenose dolphin, found off the coasts of South America, is now endangered with fewer than 400 individuals remaining, largely due to accidental capture in gillnet fisheries.
Investigators with the Environmental Justice Foundation recently found illegal drift nets still operating in the Alboran Sea between Morocco and Spain, despite a ban intended to protect dolphins, whales, sharks and turtles. The group plans to ask fisheries regulators for stronger international rules in November 2026.
In Singapore, a resort announced it would stop breeding and sourcing wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins for its oceanarium, holding over 20 of the animals, most originally captured from the Solomon Islands in 2008 and 2009. Meanwhile, researchers in eastern Australia documented bottlenose dolphins using sea snail shells to trap fish, a behavior previously known only from dolphins on the western Australian coast, suggesting the technique developed independently in both regions.
