The sanctuary is also required to achieve the following six objectives:[6] (a) the protection of the dolphin population of the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet from direct physical harm is to be maintained and improved; (b) the key habitat features in the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet that are necessary to sustain the dolphin population are to be maintained, protected and restored; (c) water quality within the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet should be improved to a level that sustains the ecological processes, environmental values and productive capacity of the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet; (d) the interests of the community are to be taken into account by recognising indigenous and other cultural, and historical, relationships with the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet and surrounding areas, and by ensuring appropriate participation in processes associated with the management of the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet; (e) public awareness of the importance of a healthy Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet to the economic, social and cultural prosperities of the local communities, and the community more generally, is to be promoted; (f) the principles of ecological sustainable development in relation to the use and management of the Port Adelaide River estuary and Barker Inlet are to be promoted.

The Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary (also referred to as the ADS[3]) is managed by the National Parks and Wildlife Service South Australia, an agency within the Department of Environment and Water.

[8][4] The sanctuary covers an area of coastline extending from Port Gawler in the north to North Haven in the south, and includes the waterways of the Port Adelaide River, the Barker Inlet and some associated channels, as well as Torrens and Garden Islands, and inlets on the Lefevre Peninsula such as Mutton Cove.

[1][4] The Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary shares territory with the following protected areas: Barker Inlet-St Kilda Aquatic Reserve; Port Gawler Conservation Park; the majority of the St Kilda – Chapman Creek Aquatic Reserve; Torrens Island Conservation Park; and parts of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park—Winaityinaityi Pangkara.

The director of AMWRRO, a marine wildlife rescue organisation based in Port Adelaide, said that bureaucratic processes contributed to the death of Star as he was not given authority to use his equipment and expertise in a timely manner.

Dolphins that inhabit or visit the sanctuary face a range of threats, including boat strikes, fishing line entanglement and shark attacks.

Adelaide Dolphin Sanctuary researcher Marianna Boorman reported in August 2021 that the pod had lost 10 young calves and eight adult females in the previous four years.

Numbers in the North Arm and Angas Inlet branches of the river, around Torrens and Garden Islands, had declined most, and those found dead were all animals that never strayed far from home.

[22][23] This started in 1988 when a female named Billie was rescued after becoming trapped in a polluted marina,[3] and spent two weeks recuperating with captive dolphins.

After becoming trapped in the Patawalonga at Glenelg, she was rescued and put into placed with several captive dolphins at Marineland, a marine park which had existed at West Beach since 1969, to recuperate.

There she observed the captive dolphins performing "tail-walking" – mimicking a standing posture, using her tail to run backwards along the water.

[24] To perform this movement, the dolphin "forces the majority of its body vertically out of the water and maintains the position by vigorously pumping its tail".

[25] A 2018 study by Mike Rossley et al. suggested:[22]Social learning is the most likely mechanism for the introduction and spread of this unusual behaviour, which has no known adaptive function.