military dolphins
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

A military marine mammal is a cetacean or
pinniped Pinnipeds (pronounced ), commonly known as seals, are a widely range (biology), distributed and diverse clade of carnivorous, fin-footed, semiaquatic, mostly marine mammal, marine mammals. They comprise the extant taxon, extant family (biology ...
that has been trained for military uses. Examples include bottlenose dolphins, seals,
sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...
s, and
beluga whale The beluga whale () (''Delphinapterus leucas'') is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus ''Delphinapterus''. It is also known as the ...
s. The
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
militaries have trained and employed
oceanic dolphin Oceanic dolphins or Delphinidae are a widely distributed family of dolphins that live in the sea. Close to forty extant species are recognised. They include several big species whose common names contain "whale" rather than "dolphin", such as the ...
s for various uses. Military marine mammals have been trained to rescue lost naval swimmers, guard navy ships against enemy divers, locate mines for later clearance by divers, and aid in location and recovery of equipment lost on the seabed.


Dolphins


Soviet Union Navy dolphins

The Soviet Navy operated a research facility to explore military uses of marine mammals at Kazachya Bukhta (), near
Sevastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...
. The Russian military's dolphin program is believed to have languished in the early 1990s. A Soviet military Beluga whale named Tichka twice escaped in 1991 and 1992, crossed the Black Sea and was admired by the residents of the Turkish town Gerze, who called him Aydın.


Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Iran

After the
fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...
, the Soviet military dolphin program was passed to the
Ukrainian Navy The Military Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ( uk, Військо́во-морські́ си́ли Збро́йних сил Украї́ни, ВМС ЗСУ) is the maritime forces of Ukraine and one of the five branches of the Ar ...
. In March 2000 the BBC reported that the Ukrainian navy had transferred their military dolphin project from Sevastopol to Iran. Iran bought the animals, and the chief trainer carried on his research at Iran's new oceanarium. In 2012, Ukraine allegedly "resurrected" the military dolphin program. After the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the Ukrainian dolphin program was taken over by Russia. Conflicting statements have been made regarding the fate of the dolphins. One claim is that the program had been demilitarized prior to the annexation, with all military dolphins either sold commercially or dead by natural causes. A counter-claim suggests that dolphins died patriotically after going on hunger strikes and resisting their Russian captors. Russia reportedly intended to used advanced technology to visualise the dolphin's biosonar signals in future military dolphin research. Government public records show that in 2016, five bottlenose dolphins were purchased by the Russian defence ministry from Moscow’s Utrish Dolphinarium.


United States Navy dolphins

The U.S. Navy trains dolphins and
sea lion Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, short and thick hair, and a big chest and belly. Together with the fur seals, they make up the family Otariidae, eared seals. ...
s under the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, which is based in
San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...
. The Navy gets some of its dolphins from the Gulf of Mexico. Military dolphins were used by the U.S. Navy during the
First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
and Second Gulf Wars, and their use dates back to the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. About 75 dolphins were in the program circa 2007, and around 70 dolphins and 30 sea lions were reported to be in the program in 2019. The United States Navy implemented a program in 1960 to work with dolphins and sea lions in order to help with defense, mine detection, and the design of new submarines and new underwater weapons. The Navy did many tests with several marine mammals to determine which would be best for the required missions, with "more than 19 species...including some sharks and birds" tested, though the bottlenose dolphin and
California sea lion The California sea lion (''Zalophus californianus'') is a coastal eared seal native to western North America. It is one of six species of sea lions. Its natural habitat ranges from southeast Alaska to central Mexico, including the Gulf of C ...
were considered the best at what the Navy needed them for. The bottlenose dolphins' asset was their highly evolved biosonar, helping to find underwater mines, and the sea lions' asset was their impeccable underwater vision, which can help to detect enemy swimmers. In fiscal year 2007, the United States Navy spent $14 million on research on marine mammal training programs for object recovery and mine detection and had 75 trained dolphins. Dolphins have contributed to saving more lives in open water than specially trained life savers. In 2005, there were press reports that some U.S. military dolphins based on
Lake Pontchartrain Lake Pontchartrain ( ) is an estuary located in southeastern Louisiana in the United States. It covers an area of with an average depth of . Some shipping channels are kept deeper through dredging. It is roughly oval in shape, about from wes ...
had escaped during the Hurricane Katrina flooding. The U.S. Navy dismissed these stories as nonsense or a hoax, though they may be taking on the status of an
urban myth An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
.


Care of animals

The marine mammals used for the Navy's research and operations are cared for by a full-time staff of veterinarians, veterinarian technicians, and highly trained marine biologists.


Training

The dolphins and sea lions are trained by five teams of the Navy's Marine Mammal fleet members. One team specializes in swimmer detection, three teams in mine location, and another team in object recoveries. The quick-response goal of this fleet is to mobilize a team and be on site within 72 hours. Dolphins are trained much as police dogs and hunting dogs are. They are given rewards such as fish on correct completion of a task. Dolphins are trained to detect underwater mines and enemy swimmers and then report back to their handlers. Rumours that dolphins had been trained to kill divers have been denied by the US Navy, which claims that training dolphins to fight or kill humans is impossible. Retired US Admiral Tim Keating claimed that military dolphins could be used to detect mines in the Strait of Hormuz, after
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
threatened to close the waterway in January 2012.


Israel

On Monday, January 10, 2022, Hamas, through a report by "Al-Quds", suspects Israel of using dolphins for the purpose of targeting Hamas dive fighters. Similar accusations were made against Israel in August 2015 when Al-Quds claimed to have sources regarding another incident of a cetacean fighter, equipped with a remote control, a camera, and a weapon that can fire harpoon-type projectiles.


Seals and sea lions

Seals and sea lions are trained and utilised by the US Navy and the Russian Navy. In Russia, dolphins and seals have been trained to carry tools for divers and to detect torpedoes, mines, and other ammunition to working depths of up to 120 metres. Seals are considered better suited than belugas for military use in polar conditions for their "high professionalism" and ability to learn, retain, and understand oral commands.


Belugas

In 2019, a
beluga The beluga whale (/bɪˈluːɡə/) (Delphinapterus leucas) is an Arctic and sub-Arctic cetacean. It is one of two members of the family Monodontidae, along with the narwhal, and the only member of the genus Delphinapterus. It is also known as the wh ...
was found off the coast of Norway that was believed to have most likely been trained by the Russian Navy. The beluga, called Hvaldimir, was wearing a harness that was labeled "Equipment of St. Petersburg", seemed comfortable around humans, and attempted to pull ropes from the sides of a Norwegian fishing vessel. Beluga research was conducted by the Murmansk Sea Biology Research Institute in northern Russia on behalf of the Russian Navy. Experiments were conducted to determine whether belugas could be used to “guard entrances to naval bases’” in arctic regions and "assist deepwater divers and if necessary kill any strangers who enter their territory". The research concluded that dolphins and seals were better suited to military use in polar conditions than belugas.


See also

*
Cetacean intelligence Cetacean intelligence is the cognitive ability of the infraorder Cetacea of mammals. This order includes whales, porpoises, and dolphins. Brain size Brain size was previously considered a major indicator of the intelligence of an animal. However, m ...
*''
The Day of the Dolphin ''The Day of the Dolphin'' is a 1973 American science fiction thriller film directed by Mike Nichols and starring George C. Scott. Based on the 1967 novel '' Un animal doué de raison'' (lit. ''A Sentient Animal''), by French writer Robert Merl ...
'', a novel and later
movie A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
about training dolphins to carry out an assassination * U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program


References


Further reading

*Anonymous. (May 2, 2003)
"Searching the Sea"
''Scholastic News'', 59(24), 2. Retrieved January 28, 2008. *Gethings, Chris
''Navy Newsstand - Eye on the Fleet''
Retrieved January 28, 2008.
"Marine Mammal Health Care of the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program"
''U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Animal Health Care''. Retrieved January 28, 2008. *Navy Office. (October 3, 2007
"Sonar - Balancing Environmental Stewardship and National Defense"
Rhumb Lines. Retrieved January 28, 2008. *Renwick, D. M., Simmons, R. & Truver, S. C. (August 1997)
"Marine Mammals are a Force Multiplier"
''United States Naval Institute Proceedings'', 123(8), 52. *Walsh, D. (May 2007)
"Sleek Sailors - The Navy's Marine Mammal Program"
''United States Naval Institute Proceedings'', 133(5), 176. Retrieved January 28, 2008.


External links


Navy Marine Mammal ProgramYear of the Dolphin HomeCBS news "Dolphins, Sea Lions Serve Military"

Science-research center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "State Oceanarium"
{{Military animals Military animals Dolphins and humans