Military-trained killer dolphins on the loose in the gulf

[GraysonDave]

My apologies if this is a repost.

It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.

Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.



http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.html

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. Whoa. Now THAT is just a perversion of natural order. n/t

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. I would have agreed

until I saw the Dark Side of Dolphins on Nat. Geo!

But I'm kidding. They aren't THAT dark. Nobody is by nature, I don't believe.

How bizarre.

[madeline_con]

3. Dolphins don't attack; not even researchers who are doing

painful experiments on them.

I read they're very peaceful animals. Their brain structure also indicates they're far smarter in some ways than us.

[1monster]

13. Not exactly true. Male dolphins have been known to show

sexually agressive behavior toward female humans.

It is not the norm, but it is not so rare as to be unheard of.

That said, I worked at a marine theme park for several years way back, and I can tell you that dolphins are very friendly, mischievous, and extremely intelligent creatures.

I used to play basketball with them after work. They never tired of that. Some of them would make sure they had a mouthful of water before throwing the ball back. Then they would make raucous sounds that imitated human laughter when the water hit the person catching the ball.

Once, many years before I worked there, there was an outbreak of some kind of illness among some of the dolphins. As a result, the dolphins were given injections of antibiotics and other other things to help them fight the infection. Those who were treating the dolphins said that the dolphins did not like the injections and would hold the gates to their holding pins closed in an effort to avoid the injections.

And I might add, that like many "lesser species" (i.e. dogs, cats, birds, etc.), dolphins are much more able to decipher human words and phrases than we so-called "superior species" can their languages.

If the government has made "freepers" and warriors from these wonderful beings, then they are guilty of a true crime against nature.

[madeline_con]

15. Wow. Thanks for the info.

Few can say they've played b-ball with dolphins. :)



(EDIT: typo...)

[iamjoy]

4. Toxic Dart Guns? How Surreal

I had heard that the military was training dolphins to detect underwater explosives, but guns? How would a dolphin hold them? It just seems too bizarre.

I thought the guardian sounded familiar, but now I wonder if it isn't the UK verson of the Weekly World News.

[acmejack]

7. The "guns" fit on their snouts

They have been working on this since the 60's. Used to have tanks full of them at Pt. Loma in San Diego.

[GraysonDave]

9. My snorkeling days may be over

I'll think twice before my next snorkeling trip off the Fla. panhandle!

[Benhurst]

8. No, the Guardian is a credible newspaper. It's the

fascist BushAmerican government which is surreal.

Do a Google search. Others have reported on this obscene program in the past.

[Cocoa]

5. the ultimate blowback

:scared:

[Blue_Roses]

6. WTF?

:wtf:

[Field Of Dreams]

10. Damn ... are they locked and loaded all the time?

Flipper ... no!!!!

[Blue-Jay]

11. Next it'll be sharks with friggin' laser beams on their heads.

[blogslut]

12. Didn't they learn anything from that movie?

The Dolphins turned on the bad guys:

[bullimiami]

14. "we have killer dolphins with poison dart guns"

"evil dolphins?"
"yes sir"
"well done"


conversation between navy and dr evil.

[SillyGoose]

16. Here's a 2003 National Geographic article about military dolphins

Dolphins Deployed as Undersea Agents in Iraq



Staff Sgt. Justin Roberts escorts K-Dog, a Bottle Nose Dolphin belonging to Commander Task Unit (CTU) 55.4.3.
Photograph by Photographers Mate 1st Class Brien Aho, courtesy
U.S. Navy


John Pickrell
for National Geographic News

March 28, 2003
The hundreds of thousands of American, British and other forces stationed in the Persian Gulf region are currently employing some rather unusual allies in the battle to depose the Iraqi leadership.

A crack troop of United States Navy-trained dolphins were at work this week, helping to locate potentially lethal and obstructive anti-ship mines, littering the seafloor near the port of Umm Qasr and other locations.


The Navy's Special Clearance Team One from San Diego, California, comprises platoons of human divers, unmanned underwater vehicles and intensively trained bottlenose dolphins. Dolphins' unrivalled underwater sonar abilities, and great intelligence, make them uniquely suitable for locating mines in cluttered shallow-water environments where military electronic hardware is rendered virtually useless.
...

Dolphins have also been used to detect enemy swimmers and divers, and potentially, to attach markers. The swimmer defense system was deployed in Vietnam in the early 1970s and also in the Persian Gulf during the Iran/Iraq war of the late 1980s.

more...
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0328_030328_wardolphins.html

[zara]

17. Day of the DOlphin? Dolphins of NIMH?

[Tower]

18. Our country is being run by Doctor Evil.

"All I want is sharks with some frikkin' LASER BEAMS attached to their heads!".

This really is too weird.

[Bigmack]

19. Who cares?

Hey... who cares about armed dolphins? It's the young men armed with automatic weapons that scare me. If the military can pervert a warm and sensitive creature like Flipper, imagine what they can do to somebody like BillyBob? BB will "escape" into our society after the war ends.

[GraysonDave]

20. I usually feel safe amongst the fish

That's kinda the point, now the trained lunatics may be coming at me from another angle!

[earthboundmisfit]

21. There's some heavy Karma to be paid for this.

And I hope we get to see it in this lifetime - hoping MORE, of course that ALL of us don't have to pay, as we just may...
This is most despicable, but I am not surprised by it.

[pitohui]

22. i think this be the famous british humor at work

even serious news sources like the guardian & bbc have been guilty of some leg-pulling on their animal stories

i have lived in the area many a yr & seen many a dolphin in the gulf (not in the lake, never) & i have known quite a few humans working at NOAA & never have i heard of any "assassin" dolphins