Navy Dolphin Patrol Under Fire
By Noah Shachtman January 28, 2009 | 7:05:24 AMCategories: Animal Kingdom, Bizarro
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/navy-dolphin-pa.html
The sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads were unavailable, apparently. So instead, the U.S. Navy wants to use teams of strobelight-wielding dolphins and sea lions, to protect a nuclear submarine base against enemy swimmers.
The plan, first floated in 2007, enraged local environmentalist groups. Sure, dolphins already patrol the sub base in Kings Bay, Georgia, they argue. But in the waters around Washington state's Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, flipper and friends would just be too chilly.
Not so, the Navy responded. "The dolphins would only be on duty for two hours at a time and otherwise be in heated enclosures," the Kitsap Sun notes. Environmental impact hearings are scheduled for next month.
Under the Navy's plan, the paper explains, the dolphins "would work only at night" around the base, which serves as the home port for eight nuclear missile-carrying Trident submarines. The marine mammals would use their speed and underwater sensing abilities to look for dog-paddling adversaries. If the dolphins found such an intruder, they would drop a strobe light nearby. "The light would float to the surface, marking the spot." Human security guards in nearby speedboats would race to the light, to handle the rest.
The sea lions would play an even more active role in enemy apprehension. They would "carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If they found a suspicious swimmer, they would clamp the cuff around the person’s leg. The intruder [would] then be reeled in for questioning."
As nutty as the whole thing sounds, the Navy allegedly trained marine mammals for even more extreme missions during the Cold War. In 1977, Michael Greenwood, a former Navy dolphin trainer, claimed that dolphins had been armed with "large hypodermic syringes loaded with pressurized carbon dioxide" which would cause enemy divers to literally blow up.
By Noah Shachtman January 28, 2009 | 7:05:24 AMCategories: Animal Kingdom, Bizarro
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/01/navy-dolphin-pa.html
The sharks with frickin' lasers on their heads were unavailable, apparently. So instead, the U.S. Navy wants to use teams of strobelight-wielding dolphins and sea lions, to protect a nuclear submarine base against enemy swimmers.
The plan, first floated in 2007, enraged local environmentalist groups. Sure, dolphins already patrol the sub base in Kings Bay, Georgia, they argue. But in the waters around Washington state's Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, flipper and friends would just be too chilly.
Not so, the Navy responded. "The dolphins would only be on duty for two hours at a time and otherwise be in heated enclosures," the Kitsap Sun notes. Environmental impact hearings are scheduled for next month.
Under the Navy's plan, the paper explains, the dolphins "would work only at night" around the base, which serves as the home port for eight nuclear missile-carrying Trident submarines. The marine mammals would use their speed and underwater sensing abilities to look for dog-paddling adversaries. If the dolphins found such an intruder, they would drop a strobe light nearby. "The light would float to the surface, marking the spot." Human security guards in nearby speedboats would race to the light, to handle the rest.
The sea lions would play an even more active role in enemy apprehension. They would "carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If they found a suspicious swimmer, they would clamp the cuff around the person’s leg. The intruder [would] then be reeled in for questioning."
As nutty as the whole thing sounds, the Navy allegedly trained marine mammals for even more extreme missions during the Cold War. In 1977, Michael Greenwood, a former Navy dolphin trainer, claimed that dolphins had been armed with "large hypodermic syringes loaded with pressurized carbon dioxide" which would cause enemy divers to literally blow up.