Expert: MARK A. HOWELL - 3/18/2009

Question
Hi,
My name is Emily and I am doing a research project for my English class, my subject is on the military's use of dolphins.  I am researching the pro's about using dolphins and other marine animals to find underwater mines and protect US piers and ships from enemy swimmers.  Here are my questions:
What is good about the military's use of marine mammals for such tasks?
What is the dolphins main tasks that they perform for this program?
Do the trainers that train the dolphins ever harm the dolphins or mistreat them?

Answer
Emily,
I recently answered the same question for a girl named Tamika.  Hopefully she's not in your class.

A few years ago I visited the San Diego facility where they train dolphins.  A Navy friend of mine who runs the program invioted me to take a tour in exchange for me taking him on a tour of an Air Force underground ICBM missile silo.
The information I learned there is what I'm using to answer your questions.

The Navy's marine mammal program (NMMP)is based in San Diego, and they train dolphins and other marine mammals to locate sea mines and also to stand guard at harbors and ships to detect enemy scuba divers.  A few dolphins are trained in an Atlantic Ocean facility.  The dolphin uses its sonar ability upon a cue from the handler, and communicates in a particular way to the handler when an object is found.  If the object is a mine, the dolphin marks the location by releasing a buoy.  The ships avoid the area of the mines, or the mines are disarmed by navy divers.  There are more than 40 types of dolphins and the Navy has experimented with all types, as well as sea lions, seals, sharks, and whales.  The Navy discovered that the bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions were the best to work with.  The Bottlenose Dolphin is the most common and familiar species of dolphin.  Many of the other species were dangerous and untrainable.  The Bottlenose Dolphin are friendly, fairly easy to train, adapt well to humans, and are very strong and hearty.

Humans cannot do the job that marine mammals are doing now.
First of all, you need to know that  the dolphins are treated very humanely and are well-cared for.  They have their own full-time staff of veterinarians, veterinarian technicians, and highly trained marine biologists.  The doctors and staff are on call around-the-clock so  the animals get the care that they need. Their goal is to keep the dolphins and sea lions healthy and fit for duty with routine physicals, nutrition oversight, and extensive data collection and management.  Dolphins are trained much like police dogs and hunting dogs are.  They are given incentives such as fish and squid when they do a task correctly.  Most dolphins have just one trainer and respond only to that trainer.  The trainers love the animals and often become emotionally attached to them.  When a trained animal dies, it's handler is usually in such grief that they are not assigned another dolphin for several months.
 
Animal rights activists would have you believe otherwise.  They take one incident and blow it out of proportion and try to make you believe it happens all the time to all the animals, because it helps support their cause.  Sure some dolphins have died but humans also get into accidents and also die from disease.  The Navy has been training dolphins for over 40 years so they know what they're doing.  They wouldn't spend a lot of time and money to train animals and then harm them, if nothing else that would be a poor investment.  Likewise, the Navy does not train dolphins to harm humans or to carry weapons to destroy ships.  The Navy strictly follows regulations of the Marine Mammal Protection, and the Animal Welfare Act.  The Navy is responsible for meeting all the laws regarding acquisition, care and treatment of its marine mammals, and not only meets but exceeds them and leads the industry over zoos and aquariums such as Sea World.  An instruction from the Secretary of the Navy requires that the Navy's "marine mammals will be provided the highest quality of humane treatment and care."  Congress has provided the Navy with exemptions to a few specific requirements in support of national security, but none are related to the care and well-being of the animals.  Back in the 1970's there was a movie called "The Day of the Dolphin" that depicted dolphins trained to carry weapons and to attack enemy ships.  It was a good movie but of course it was fictional.  Fiction is always more interesting than the truth, that's why the National Enquirer sells so many papers.  Since dolphins cannot tell the difference between enemy and friendly ships, or enemy and friendly divers and swimmers, it would not be wise to give that kind of decision authority to an animal.  That decision is always left to humans.  

The Navy currently relies on dolphins and sea lions to help protect lives and naval assets for two major reasons: 1) Their sensory capabilities; and, 2) their diving capabilities. Dolphins naturally possess the most sophisticated sonar known to man. Mines and other potentially dangerous objects are acoustically difficult targets to detect, especially in dark or murky water. The dolphin's sonar system is unmatched in its ability to make accurate detections. The sea lion has excellent low light vision and underwater directional hearing capabilities. Sea lions are not only adept at locating objects in challenging conditions, they also have the ability to maneuver in tight spaces and can go onto the shore if necessary. Both animals are also very fast.  Dolphins can make repeated deep-water dives without suffering the effects of decompression sickness or "the bends" as humans do.  One dolphin, two handlers, and a rubber boat searching for mines can effectively replace a full-sized Navy ship and its crew, a group of human divers, and the doctors, cooks and machinery necessary to support the divers operating onboard the ship.   Enemy forces standing guard at ports, harbors and ships expect to see dolphins in the water because that's their natural environment, so dolphins sightings go unnoticed.  Wheras a human diver is out of his environment and when spotted you can assume he's an enemy up to no good.  The dolphins locate and mark the location of mines which are usually magnetic and are designed to be set off by large metal ships, not aquatic animals.  In the swimmer detection program, dolphins and sea lions move so quickly and with such accuracy that human swimmers in dark or murky waters are located and marked before they know what has happened.  Once their location has been marked, the animals are removed from the area before mines are disarmed or swimmers are apprehended by trained security forces.  Dolphins are actually in more danger from sharks and other natural enemies than from their work for the Navy.  Dolphins are so efficient in their training that many enemy navies fear them.  When the United States used dolphins in the Persian Gulf during the Iran-Iraq war, it was reported that Iranian patrol boats would machine gun any dolphin they saw, afraid it might be detecting their mines.

Dolphins are kept and trained in their own natural ocean environment, so their habitat never really changes.  Dolphins are kept in ocean pens, areas of the ocean that are fenced of with mesh wire.  Over short distances, animals are trained to either swim alongside a small boat or to ride in the boat itself.  For long distance trips, animals can be transported by sea in large ships or by air in planes or helicopters.  For these trips, dolphins ride in specially designed enclosures and are kept cool, wet, and comfortable.  Sometimes they are placed in fleece-lined stretchers that are suspended in fiberglass containers filled with enough water to comfortably support the weight of the animal.  On these long transports, a veterinarian oversees the comfort and health care of all the animals while each animal is constantly monitored by an experienced trainer or handler.  Upon arrival at their destinations, animals are housed in temporary facilities that are much like those in San Diego.  Additionally, a portable veterinary clinic accompanies the animals to provide veterinarians with everything they need to care for the health of the animals.  Dolphins and their handlers must be ready to mobilize as a team and reach their destination in 72 hours.   During these flights they are out of their natural habitat for a few short hours.  Because their trainer accompanies them, the dolphins tolerate the ride well are have no stress.  Once they are ready to go to work, they're still in their environment.  Pacific dolphins are kept in the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic dolphins are kept in the Atlantic Ocean because it is slightly saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
I hope you receive this in time, and I hope we get an "A".
Colonel Howell