Dolphins used for warfare

ckreef · 03-25-2003, 04:07 PM

Was listening to the morning war briefing today. The General was talking about clearing mines in the gulf so coalition and humanitarian ships can come in to port. He then mentioned that they even used specially trained Dolphins to help them locate some of the mines. When I got home they had some brief footage on CNN showing them unloading a Dolphin into the water.

I thought is was really cool knowing that Dolphins were helping preserve the lives of our fellow countrymen.

Unfortunatly after listening to the more briefing I rolled my window down and stuck my head out of my truck. I swear I could hear the animal rights activists all the way up in Washington DC allready crying foul.

Charles

Rick O · 03-25-2003, 04:56 PM

I've heard that some people use monkeys to find land mines. I'm guessing they only find one each.

ncolon · 03-25-2003, 05:23 PM

Dolphins and Seals are trained to locate and tag mines for distruction, However this causes no harm to the mammal under normal operations. They spend way to much money trainning them to be used on single engagements.

Ray1214 · 03-25-2003, 05:47 PM

In Point Loma, the Navy Submarine Base at San Diego, they had dolphins come up and tag us (I was a diver). They were trained to spot people swiming near the boats (subs) so that bombs or what not could not be placed. They would tag you with I guess a beeper or something and the U.S. Navy Seals would come in and get you

Kinda cool I though.

Ray

03-26-2003, 04:27 AM

That sounds sooooo Sci Fi it kinda scares me.

Ray1214 · 03-26-2003, 07:50 AM

The kewl part is that if they recognize you as "Friendly". (When the *&*&^%$$#@# would turn them loose on us to freak us out during routine dive ops, the dolphins would just come up to you and chatter at you (We would know that this was to freak us out since they wouldn't have their head bands on with the taggers) like "Boy if you were the enemy, i would have lunch right now"..LOL. super super intellligent. But as "cute" as they are, they will flash some teeth at you.

traip93 · 03-26-2003, 08:00 AM

i saw the same thing, very interesting. I read yesterday that the dolphins are extremely happy. THeir life spans are increased greatly in captivity and these particular dolphins are not kept in captivity, they are free to come and go as they please, and these ones always return and love to learn. I think it's real neat (for lack of a better word)

Heyoo · 03-26-2003, 11:36 AM

Do they drip-acclimate these dolphins???

ckreef · 03-26-2003, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Heyoo
Do they drip-acclimate these dolphins???

Nope. From what I saw on CNN they just slid the Dolphin into the water. But I immagine they would be more like a person jumping into water then a coral or fish needing to be acclimated.

For a person acclimation is nice but usually not life threatening if you just jump in.

Dolphins used for warfare

When I was in