ABSTRACT
Wild marine mammals inhabit dynamic aquatic environments, ranging from Arctic waters to tropical bays. Maintaining good water quality for captive animals is crucial to ensuring their health and well-being. Much of what is known about the basic husbandry requirements of captive marine mammals is derived from the collective experience of zoos, parks, and aquariums. Intuitively, recreating conditions of a species’ natural habitat is the most straightforward approach to captive management. However, in facilities in which natural seawater, for example, is limited, mechanical and biological processes must be developed and/or applied to provide alternatives for water conservation and reuse. This chapter provides an overview of some of the principal issues regarding water quality for marine mammals.
