Extinction
Extinct
Extinct in the
wild
Threatened
Critically
endangered
Endangered
Vulnerable
Threatened
Lower risk
Conservation
dependent
Near
threatened
Least
concern
Domesticated
Data deficient
(according to IUCN)
Bottlenose dolphins are not endangered. Their future is currently
foreseen to be stable because of their abundance and high adaptability.
However some specific populations are threatened due to various
environmental changes like contamination and over-fishing.
Bottlenose dolphins (and several other dolphin species) often travel
together with tuna, and since the dolphins are much easier to spot than
the tuna, fishermen commonly encircle dolphins to catch tuna, often
resulting in the death of the dolphins. This has led to boycotts of tuna
products and in 1990 the rise of the "dolphin-safe" label for tuna caught with
methods that don't endanger dolphins.
Its abundance and high adaptability makes this dolphin is the most
cached species to perform in dolphin shows. They were also
cached for their meat and medical means. Various animal welfare activist
organizations protested against these activities. Direct human
interaction with dolphins is used in the dolphin-therapy of handicapped
(physically and mentally) children.
The military of the United States and Russia train bottlenose dolphins
as military dolphins for wartime tasks such as locating sea mines or
detecting and marking enemy divers.
Toxicological reports of stranded bottlenose dolphins on the coast of
Buenos Aires note that they had elevated levels of heavy metals in their
blubber and plastics in their stomachs. Moreover, since the ’80 the
number of sightings on the coast of the Buenos Aires province declined
and nowadays it became even rare to sight a bottlenose dolphin in this
region (whereas before, sightings where daily). This
‘disappearance’ of bottlenose dolphins on the coast of Buenos Aires is
probably not only due to the increasing pollution, but is probably
linked to the over-fishing. Even the population in the San Jose Gulf
(Patagonia) has
declined over the last 10 years. A place in Argentina where bottlenose
dolphins can be seen with a high frequency is the Bay of San Antonio.
Internationally, the bottlenose dolphin is listed in the Appendix II of
CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Flora and Fauna) and noted in the ‘Red Book’ of Argentina (SAREM -
Argentine Association for the Study of Mammals) where it is considered a
species under ‘least concern'. The species is categorized as 'data deficient'
by the IUCN
(World Conservation Union).