Day of the dolphin
Day of the Dolphin is not one civic close. Unofficial calendars print National Dolphin Day on 14 April. World Dolphin Day is 12 September. The 1973 film uses the same English title.
How it works
There is no single public holiday that shuts a country for dolphins. What exists is a cluster of unofficial and campaign dates, plus a film title that search boxes still remember. You mark a dolphin day by paying attention to living animals — wild ones, river ones, the ones in news about hunts and bycatch — not by waiting for a bank to lock its door.
National Dolphin Day, on U.S. fun calendars, is 14 April. It is an unofficial awareness date, sometimes grouped with veterinary and pet-health lists. It celebrates dolphins and points at threats: hunting, bycatch, captivity for entertainment, habitat loss. It does not, by itself, change a fishing quota. The next April 14 after this Thursday is a Wednesday in 2027.
World Dolphin Day falls every 12 September. Sea Shepherd launched it in 2022, on the anniversary of the 12 September 2021 Atlantic white-sided dolphin hunt in the Faroe Islands. From 3 September 2026 that campaign date is nine days away: Saturday, 12 September 2026. That is the dolphin square that actually sits near this Thursday, not the April one.
Three dolphin dates, one film title
India marks a National Dolphin Day on 5 October, aimed at the Ganges river dolphin, a different animal and a different national conversation. Do not flatten April, September, and October into one “dolphin weekend.” The English title The Day of the Dolphin is also a 1973 Mike Nichols film with George C. Scott, from Robert Merle’s novel, about trained dolphins. A film date is a release. It is not 14 April and it is not 12 September.
National Dolphin Day (U.S. unofficial lists): 14 April. World Dolphin Day: 12 September, from 2022, Sea Shepherd. Next World Dolphin Day from 3 September 2026: Saturday 12 September 2026. India’s National Dolphin Day: 5 October, Ganges river dolphin.
1973 film: The Day of the Dolphin, a title, not a civic feast. A dolphin does not need a calendar to be worth leaving alone. The date is for people who forgot that.
What the day is for
If you use 12 September, the work the founders named is protection: against hunts, against bycatch, against keeping dolphins as a show. Sharing a clip of a leap is optional. Sharing a fact about a local river dolphin or a local stranding network is closer to the point. A costume dolphin at a shop is a mascot. It does not count as conservation.
If you use 14 April, keep it as an awareness square, not a trip to a tank you already had doubts about. Captivity is one of the things the unofficial day is for questioning. A wild-watch from a responsible boat, a donation to a group you have actually checked, a quieter beach — those are observances. A mandatory office “dolphin hour” is not.
None of these dates close schools. None of them are a substitute for the law of the water you are standing by. If you came for the film, the film is 1973 and the dolphins in it are a plot. If you came for a living animal, pick the September Saturday that is almost here, or the April Wednesday next year, and then look at the animal, not the poster.
Questions and answers
- When is Day of the Dolphin?
- There is no one civic date. Unofficial U.S. lists use 14 April. World Dolphin Day is 12 September. From 3 September 2026, 12 September is the near one.
- Do offices close for dolphins?
- No. Workdays and class days keep their ordinary hours.
- Is it the 1973 film?
- The film has that title. The awareness dates are separate. A search can mean either; a bank close follows neither.
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