Goodness, how I love dolphins.
I’ve only met one, in actuality. It happened in Hawaii while we vacationed there. I did one of those “swim with the dolphins” things. I’m glad that I did, as I will never forget that privilege of being that near to a dolphin, letting it swim up into my arms and against my chest, feeling its smooth dolphin face on my face. I don’t remember her name, the name that humans assigned to her. She was about 400 pounds and around ten feet long. But mostly, she was extremely good-natured and gentle, putting up with her daily task of letting us humans be near her. I think she would have rather been somewhere else.
Sometimes, I’m not too fond of how we humans treat our cohabitants of Planet Earth. I often wonder about our relationship here with animals and how much of it we are getting wrong.
All of this came to mind because on this date, October 13, 1987. We saw the first military use of trained dolphins when the US Navy used them in the Persian Gulf.
The Navy’s Marine Mammal Program began back in 1960.
Supposedly they had two goals at the start of this program. The first goal was to study the underwater sonar capabilities of dolphins and beluga whales. The Navy wanted to learn how they could detect objects underwater using sonar like the dolphins. In addition, they studied how to improve the speed of their underwater vehicles by viewing dolphins. Yes, those super-fast dolphins who can dive so deep.
The second goal was to train dolphins, beluga whales, sea lions, and other marine mammals to perform various underwater tasks. Their jobs would include “delivering equipment to divers underwater, locating and retrieving lost objects, guarding boats and submarines, and doing underwater surveillance using a camera held in their mouths.”
And so the Navy did. Dolphins were used for some of these tasks in many places and times.
I sure never knew. But this was a pretty big deal for quite a while. The Marine Mammal Program was originally classified. I guess that means a “need-to-know basis.” The activity came to a peak during the Cold War — like the 1980s Cold War.
Those Bottlenose dolphins had many jobs. But the main deal was to detect and mark underwater mines. The dolphins would locate a mine and then pull a weighted buoy line near the mine to mark it.
The Soviets were doing the same thing. As with everything between the U.S. and Russia, it became a bit of a race war. I wonder if their dolphins talked to our dolphins. No translators needed.
At one point during the 1980s, our military program had over a hundred dolphins working for us. Not to mention all the sea lions and beluga whales. The operating budget in those days was 8 million dollars.
But the Navy downsized the program when the Cold War ended in the 1990s. By 1992, it was declassified.
So what about all those dolphins and whales and such? Many of them were “retired.” Yet, people protested the Navy’s methods, questioning whether or not those dolphins could really go back to being in the wild.
I’m not sure how it ended for those dolphins. But those amazing creatures can live to be 60 years old. It is likely that many of them are still swimming around somewhere, bellying up to The Sand Bar, and telling old war stories over their favorite drinks, Sea Breezes.
Did I mention that I sure love dolphins?
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“A dolphin’s smile is the greatest deception. It creates the illusion that they’re always happy.”
— Ric O’Barry
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“Would you learn the secret of the sea? Only those who brave its dangers, comprehend its mystery!” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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“In one drop of water are found all the secrets of all the oceans.” — Kahlil Gibran
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Dolphins with jobs. Sergeant Bottlenose.
