Military whales and dolphins: What do they do and who uses them?

When a beluga whale started approaching
fishing boats and pulling on ropes near a small Norwegian town in
April, people became suspicious. The beluga^[1]
was wearing a harness that looked like it could carry a camera,
the
Guardian reports^[2], and “Equipment of St.
Petersburg” was stamped on the inside.

Marine experts have suggested that the whale was part of a
Russian military program that trains cetaceans for operations. It
may sound strange, but it’s not unheard of.

In 2017, Russian state television reported that the country was
experimenting with using beluga whales,
bottlenose dolphins, and several species of seals to guard
entrances to naval bases, assist divers, and possibly kill
strangers who entered their territory. Belugas were dropped from
the program, however, when it became clear that swimming for long
periods in cold, polar waters made the whales sick.
^[3]

And when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014, it took over a Ukrainian
military unit that included bottlenose dolphins, according to news
reports. The Ukranian “combat dolphins,” based in Sevastopol,
were trained to search for and tag underwater mines or unwanted
swimmers attempting to access restricted waterways, says RIA
Novosti.
^[4][5]

Using marine mammals for military purposes isn’t restricted to
Russia—the U.S.
Navy has had a similar program^[6]
since the 1960s. The ability of these animals to detect and find
targets at depth or in murky water is something technology can’t
duplicate yet but which militaries find very valuable.

The U.S. Navy trains its marine mammals—including California sea lions^[7]
and bottlenose dolphins—to find and retrieve equipment lost at sea
and to identify intruders swimming into restricted areas. The
dolphins are also used to detect mines that are either buried in
the seafloor or floating in the water, tethered to an anchor.

"[Bottlenose dolphins] are better than any machine as
far as detecting mines," says Paul Nachtigall^[8], head of the marine
mammal research program at the University of Hawaii in Kane’ohe
Bay. They can also do it much faster than a machine can.

Dolphins can be especially effective close to shore, where
crashing surf and ship traffic generate a lot of noise, Nachtigall
says. Mechanical systems can be overwhelmed by all the competing
signals, but not dolphins.

It’s because their sonar is so finely tuned, he explains.
Dolphins, and relatives like killer whales, send out a series of
sounds that bounce off of objects in the surrounding environment.
The mammals pick up the return echoes and form an acoustic picture
of their environment, an ability known as echolocation^[9].

Experiments Nachtigall conducted in the mid-1990s with a
resident bottlenose dolphin named BJ demonstrated this sensitive
ability. Nachtigall asked BJ to distinguish between metal cylinders
made of either stainless steel, brass, or aluminum. Even though he
buried the four inch-long objects under two feet of mud, BJ passed
with flying colors.

Researchers still don’t know how dolphins do this, Nachtigall
says. But it’s a topic that has captured the attention of military
and civilian scientists for decades.

California sea lions, while they don’t possess sonar
capabilities, have excellent eyesight. "They’re really
good at finding things that are out of place," such as
lost equipment, says Nachtigall.

The U.S. Navy uses them to find and retrieve unarmed test
ordnance like practice mines. Handlers give a sea lion an
attachment system it can hold in its mouth and send the mammal
overboard. Once the animal finds its target, it clamps the device
to it and handlers in a boat at the surface can bring the object
in.

A 2011
media demonstration in San Diego Bay, California^[10], featured a former U.S.
Navy SEAL attempting to infiltrate the harbor with an unarmed mine.
The Navy deployed dolphins and sea lions to patrol the area, and
both caught the diver on every one of his five attempts. The sea
lion even managed to attach a clamp to the diver’s leg, and
handlers on the surface reeled him in like a fish.

Both California sea lions and bottlenose dolphins are fairly
hardy, smart, and very trainable, says Nachtigall. Sea lions also
have the advantage of being amphibious. That’s why the U.S. Navy
ended up using them instead of other marine mammals like false
killer whales or belugas, which they also initially looked at. (See
"Dolphins Have Longest Memories in
Animal Kingdom."^[11])