Dolphin Tales: Dolphins and the military
For all our advanced technology, nothing beats the ability of marine mammals to find things in the ocean. This is why the U.S. Navy implemented a program in 1960 to work with dolphins and sea lions in order to help with defense, mine detection, object recovery, the rescue of lost naval swimmers and the design of new submarines and underwater weapons.
The bottlenose dolphins and the California sea lions were considered the best at what the Navy needed them for. Bottlenose dolphins have highly evolved bio sonar and sea lions have amazing underwater vision. Through bio sonar or echolocation, dolphins emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echo of those calls that return from various objects. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects.
The U.S. Navy Military used dolphins during the first and second Gulf Wars and their use dates back to the Vietnam War. About 75 dolphins were in the program by 2007. The deepest dive ever recorded for a bottlenose dolphin was 990 feet. It was accomplished by Tuffy, a dolphin trained by the U.S Navy. Another dolphin named BJ was asked to distinguish between metal cylinders made of either stainless steel, brass or aluminum. Even though the researcher buried the four-inch long objects under two feet of mud, BJ passed with flying colors.
Dolphins are still used by the military today.
Capt. Cathy Eagle has spent over 40 years boating in our local waters. As a professional charter captain she specializes in dolphin and nature tours. Visit CaptainCathy.com or call 239 994-2572.