Dolphin Soldiers
By: Lauren De Hart
Animals should not be exploited for the purposes of human warfare.
The U.S. Navy Mammal Training Programme has been in effect since 1961 when the first batch of wild dolphins were rounded up and captured by marines. Dolphins were initially captured to be held under scientific observation because of their outstanding echo location and sonar, but the navy soon realised that there was no technology advanced enough to simulate those abilities. It was quickly discovered that Atlantic bottle nose dolphins are highly trainable and the concept of using them as actual soldiers was born.
The Navy is extremely secretive about the ways and means in which the dolphins are trained… which arouses some suspicions of cruelty and abuse. Most of the information on this training programme is classified and the base at which the dolphins are raised and trained is off-limits to civilians. The only reliable information was gathered from accounts given by ex-marines who came forward because they wished to express their concerns for the treatment of these animals. One such person is Gary Hamm, a retired U.S. Navy chief, who revealed an alleged secret called the ‘Swimmer Nullification Programme’. The dolphins are trained to detect enemy divers attempting to invade or attack by sea. Once they have detected an enemy diver, they swim back to verify this and are then fitted with a nose cone device. They then swim up to the enemy diver and on contact a bullet is released into the diver’s chest. The front part of the cone then falls of and rises to the surface to indicate where the body is. The U.S. Navy has flatly denied these claims.
Marine scientist Dr Naomi Rose is one of the very few civilians who has been given the opportunity to actually go inside the San Diego training area and observe the activities taking place. She found it heart-breaking to see these innocent creatures being held and exploited in this manner. They are held in ten metre by ten metre pens and trained via a ‘reward system’ of food. They are basically working for fish and when they are sent out in to the open ocean, their snouts are muzzled so that they cannot catch their own food. The dolphins raised in captivity are totally dependent on their handlers. They are being raised as if they are domestic animals.
Because of the rigorous training exercises these dolphins are forced to undergo, much of which takes place late at night under the cloak of darkness, their lifespans are greatly shortened due to stress and exhaustion. Previously classified documents revealed that the lifespan of these soldier dolphins is at most 20 years whereas dolphins in the wild naturally live to 60 years.
It is not clear what happens to these trained mammals when they are too old to work but some claim that they are killed or discarded back into the wild without any rehabilitation. It is highly doubtful that these dolphins would even be able to survive on their own.
There is an online petition that you can sign to object to the use of dolphins in naval mine-hunting operations. It is directed to former U.S. Secretary of State for Defence Donald Rumsfeld.
This can be accessed at PetitionOnline.com
Click here to sign the petition
The military dolphin’s main purpose is to detect underwater mines planted by the enemy. Editorial producer of Passport Nadia Bilchik explains that dolphins can detect underwater mines because they are the only animals in the world, along with whales, that have underwater echo location and sonar. Think of an ultrasound that hospitals use to show a pregnant mother her unborn child: this is how dolphins naturally see and hear.
