Word: dolphins
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According to people once involved in military dolphin projects, the animals will be used in Puget Sound in much the same way as they were in Viet Nam. One probable difference is that the dolphins will simply mark the location of the intruder or ensnare swimmers through some means less brutal than darts. Unless war breaks out, underwater saboteurs at the Trident base are more likely to be antinuclear protesters or animal-rights activists than enemy agents. That raises the bizarre possibility that dolphins might help the Navy arrest dolphin lovers...
JUST in case you wondered what the Pentagon could ever possibly do to top the $600 hammer, the New York Times ran a front-page story on April 9 about the Navy's newest and most advanced submarine defense system--the bottlenosed dolphin. In a clandestine program expanded under the Reagan Administration, the U.S. Navy has spent close to $30 million over the past four years trying to put these highly intelligent marine mammals to military...
Although the Navy refuses to comment on the nature of the dolphins' tasks, private sources claim the dolphins defend moored nuclear submarines by identifying and killing saboteur-divers. Others are reportedly trained to locate mines (one dolphin died during recent naval operations in the Persian Gulf). Apparently, the CIA has even approached former trainers from the hit 1960s TV show, "Flipper," asking them to train dolphins to place explosives on ships...
...this has happened despite the objections of highly-respected dolphin trainers over the feasibility of the program. Indeed, Flipper's trainer Ric O'Barry, while admitting that dolphins are highly intelligent, added that they are also highly disobedient and unpredictable. O'Barry notes, "[Let's just say] I wouldn't want them guarding half our nuclear arsenal...
...Navy has ignored these criticisms and continues to forge ahead with its cutting-edge dolphin program. Indeed, the Navy has even opened up a sort of boot camp in San Diego for its force of 100 dolphins, 25 sea lions and three beluga whales--the "Naval Oceans Systems Center...