A respected accident investigator claims to have received reports that dolphins trained by the U.S. Navy to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies
underwater may have escaped into the Gulf of Mexico.
observer.guardian.co.uk
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.
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If the reports are accurate then precautions were not made to secure the dolphins. The military and naval authorities need to be more careful and if
they could not be secured they should have been moved to another facility.
Dolphins used with the USN don't just swim around their pens with the equipment strapped on, be it a camera, or a dart gun, or whatever. It's
strapped on before they go out for training, or whatever, and removed when they come back.
I seriously doubt the authenticity of this story. However, if it is true, #1 the dolphins would not be armed with anything and #2 they'd probably
already be dead since they don't know how to take care of themselves in the wild.
I'd kind of be careful on this one. Even if these dolphins don't have their dart guns they could still be dangerous. I know that the Navy had some
trained dolphins in San Diego in 1983 and part of their training was to ram into divers. Dolphins have been known to kill sharks by ramming them. As
far a their survival goes I wouldn't bet against them doing quite well. I know that I wouldn't want to dive in the area unless I knew what their
training was. How were they taught to identify an intruder?