Cozumel’s Dolphin Mothers Trapped in Tarp Pools

In the wild, a mother dolphin and her calf are inseparable. They swim together for kilometers each day, playing, exploring, and communicating through a complex language of sounds and gestures. The mother nurses her calf for more than a year, teaching it to hunt, interact with the group, and survive in the ocean. Dolphins are highly social animals that live in family groups which collaborate, play, and defend one another. Mothers, in particular, maintain an unbreakable bond with their young, accompanying them even into their juvenile years.

But in Cozumel, this image is starkly different.

On February 15, 2025, the organization Empty the Tanks documented a painful scene: two mothers and two calves confined to a tiny, makeshift pool surrounded by blue tarps. In another equally precarious enclosure, an isolated female, likely pregnant, was observed. More recently, on September 27, these practices were repeated, with a mother and her calf seen in the same restricted space.

These images leave no room for doubt: mothers and calves, which should be exploring the ocean together, are trapped in a handful of cubic meters of water, swimming in circles, deprived of all natural expression of their social, emotional, and physical lives.

Dolphinaris Cozumel not only perpetuates this confinement but also displays it as if it were entertainment or education.

Empty the Tanks Mexico has already filed three formal complaints against this facility. But it is not enough. Society at large needs to see what happens behind the ticket booths, the tourist brochures, and the false marketing of this industry.

"For me, this pain is personal," said Jessica González Castro. "My fight began out of love for dolphins: for their intelligence, for the way they care for their families, and for their incredible abilities to survive in the ocean. No mother should see her calf grow up in a small enclosure. No dolphin should live reduced to a swimming pool. The ocean is their home, and the only way to respect their nature is by returning them to it."

That is why, now more than ever, it is urgent to share the recorded images and videos, disseminate them on social networks, and demand that the authorities act once and for all. Because behind every "swim with dolphins" experience, there is suffering.