Navy May Deploy Anti-Terrorism Dolphins

[Joanne98]

Navy May Deploy Anti-Terrorism Dolphins
By THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press Writer

February 12, 2007, 7:33 PM EST

SAN DIEGO -- Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday.

In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-dolphin-defenders,0,1151422.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

At first I thought this was The Onion..I was expecting to read something like. "We are training the dolphins to torture terra-ists in maximum-security swimming pools."

[WindRavenX]

1. what, no sharks with freakin' lasers?

:eyes:

[Joanne98]

2. LOL

[hack89]

3. The Navy has used sea lions and dolphins for years

http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mammals/NMMP.html

In the Fleet's operational Marine Mammal Systems (MMS), the Navy uses dolphins and sea lions to find and mark the location of underwater objects. Dolphins are essential because their exceptional biological sonar is unmatched by hardware sonars in detecting objects in the water column and on the sea floor. Sea lions are used because they have very sensitive underwater directional hearing and exceptional vision in low light conditions. Both of these marine mammal species are trainable for tasks and are capable of repetitive deep diving.

Some of the objects the animals find are expensive to replace. Others could present a danger to Navy personnel and vessels. The dolphins and sea lions work under the care and close supervision of their handlers and are generally trained for a particular operational capability called a "system." (The term "system" is engineering jargon for a collection of personnel, equipment, operations processes, logistics procedures, and documentation that come together to perform a specific job.) However, animals may be crossed-trained for more than one system to better serve the needs of the Fleet. The term "mark" (MK for short) is military jargon for a type of thing within a category. There are 5 marine mammal systems called MK 4, MK 5, MK 6, MK 7, and MK 8. MK 4, MK 7, and MK 8 use dolphins, MK 5, which uses sea lions, and MK 6 uses both sea lions and dolphins. These human/animal teams can be deployed within 72 hours of notice and can be rapidly transported by ship, aircraft, helicopter, and land vehicles to potential regional conflict or staging areas all over the world. They regularly participate in major Fleet exercises. These animals are released almost daily untethered into the open ocean, and since the program began, only a few animals have not returned.

All Fleet systems are assigned to the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group ONE (EODGRU ONE), where the mine hunting systems (MK 4, MK 7, and MK 8 MMS) are assigned to Naval Special Clearance Team ONE (NSCT ONE). MK 5 and MK 6 MMS are assigned to Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit THREE (EODMU THREE). SSC San Diego supports these Fleet systems with replenishment marine mammals, hardware, training, personnel, and documentation.

[pinniped]

4. These fucks just can not leave wildlife alone.

They could recruit Aquaman and his giant seahorse if they knew the location of Atlantis.


Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.

Would the pinniped know the right questions to ask to determine if the divers are 'rogue' or not?

Papers please????

I can see entire colonies of pinnipeds getting hauled into court for false arrests.

Are the pinnipeds trained not to surface too quickly with the clamped boogeyman diver? We wouldn't want said boogeymen getting some sort of decompression sickness.

[rocktivity]

5. Wasn't this the subject of a movie with George C. Scott?

(Gets off her shiftless lazy ass and does her own research) Yep.



:headbang:
rocknation

[guitar man]

6. Dolphins?

Geez, these asshats can't get anything right. The Dolphins went 6-10 on the season and came in dead last in the AFC east, now they want to trust anti-terrorism duties to them??


:shrug: :rofl:

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

7. What they should do

is send thousands of VHS or DVD's of the TeeVee show Flipper...











Peace..the only way

[sakabatou]

8. Are they... tempremental dolphins?

[THUNDER HANDS]

9. think of how much money will be wasted

once this program shuts down because one of these dolphins accidentially kills an innocent swimmer or something.

[PSPS]

10. Not this hoax again

This has been floating around for a long time:

http://www.snopes.com/katrina/rumor/dolphins.asp

[jmm]

11. I've heard a number of versions of that too. (n/t)

[superconnected]

12. Navy seeks to deploy dolphins to protect Kitsap base

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday.

In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

more...
http://www.komotv.com/news/5801516.html

[Megahurtz]

13. Dolphins, Sea Lions To Be Drafted For Guard Duty

SAN DIEGO -- The Navy plans to use dolphins and sea lions to guard a base where about a quarter of the nation's active and inactive nuclear weapons are stored.

The plan calls for sea lions and dolphins trained by the Navy at Point Loma to patrol waters in the Pacific Northwest, pulling guard duty at Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base in Washington state, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Navy officials say they plan to use up to 30 of the animals to help patrol Puget Sound around the naval complex -- home of the nation's largest weapons arsenal.

The officials want the mammals to "counter threats from surface and submerged swimmers," which could include mines, spies and terrorists, the Union-Tribune reported.

Dolphins are adept at spotting objects and swimmers from far away, while the sea lions would be used to catch suspects by attaching a handcuff-like mechanism to their legs, the Union-Tribune reported.

About 24 percent of the nation's active and inactive nuclear weapons are stored at Kitsap-Bangor's Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific. That reportedly includes 850 inactive warheads for the outdated Trident missiles.

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/10998966/detail.html?taf=la

>>>>>>>>>>>>>snip

Where and when does it end, and,
What?
Nuclear Weapons?:wow:

[Ian David]

14. Duplicate

"Maw and Paw BAD!" Navy May Deploy Anti-Terrorism Dolphins
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=116&topic_id=13954&mesg_id=13954

[SlowDownFast]

15. Blasphemy.

If you believe in such.

[chknltl]

16. Oh great...bushco's drafted Flipper!!!

Look here Navy, we spent forever gettin' rid of that salmon snatchin' sea lion Herschel a few years ago...now you are sendin' him back with reinforcements??? What in the hell've you all been smokin' there Navy?...Our precious Pacific Northwest Salmon are NOT sea-rations! If you want our salmon just do it like everyone else, beat Mayor Nichols in a bet against the U of W Huskies! Otherwise you can take yer trained fish and go pee in someone else's pool! Oh, and by the way you might want to let Ensign Flipper know that we have some traditionalistic natives up here with a LEGAL PUNCH-CARD who prefer their cetaceans SHISH-KA-BOB STYLE... if you get my drift.





















:;):