“Cuff him, Flipper!”
This week the U.S. Navy demonstrated the ability of its marine mammal force to counter terrorism.
Specially trained dolphins and sea lions are able to help find submerged mines or terrorist divers in the waters around California ports. With their acute sight (five times better than we humans) sea lions are able to quickly and accurately identify threats in the water. Dolphins’ high frequency broadband sonar gives them extraordinary locating ability.
Beyond location tasks, the dolphins are also trained in interdiction: to clamp a cuff to an intruder’s thigh, or to a mine which can then be reeled in by security forces in a nearby boat.
The U.S. program is not new. Marine mammals were first trained in the sixties and used in the early 70s to protect an ammunition pier in the Cam Ranh Bay during the Vietnam War. During Operation Iraqi Freedom dolphins were used to detect and mark mines thus helping to clear a safe path for troops in the water.
As with everything, there is controversy: PETA charges that many dolphins have died doing this work; the Navy claims that no dolphin has died in the line of duty.
The cost of the training program is $20 million per year and it takes four years to train a marine mammal.
Some would argue that a terrorist mine placed under a pier represents a relatively less feasible threat compared to other aggressor methods of operation. An underwater bomb is harder to detonate, given the electronics involved, and remote detonation with a cell phone would really be a challenge given cell reception. Such an underwater plan would take a higher level of expertise to pull off and would result in far fewer casualties than a well placed bomb on the ground, in the same area.
And of course there’s the issue of suicide dolphins, but that’s a topic for another blog. 🙂