posted on Oct, 1 2009 @ 08:43 AM
Those are kinda neat.
On the dolphin one, my vague understanding was that they didn't use a dart but rather a clamp. Basically the dolphin is trained to hold the thing in
its mouth and tag a clamp on a swimmer's leg if that person is in a certain area. When the clamp is released, a CO2 cartridge inflates a float and a
marker (blinky light and/or noisemaker?) is released. Also if need arises, the dolphin is allowed to drag this person around like a toy too. (So Mr.
Diver can't get away by trying to remove the thing on his leg.) Thus Mr. diver comes up to the surface nice and quick so he gets to talk with the
RHIB patrol. Now if Mr. Diver disagrees they can't exactly easily shoot him (that one Mythbusters episode shows why, non-compressive water stops
bullets pretty quick), but RHIB teams usually do have handy little concussion grenades that would use the non-compressive nature of water to give Mr.
Diver a really bad day.
So compliance is probably the better option.
Under normal circumstances the dolphin doesn't ever kill anyone (directly), he just makes sure nobody can freely swim around secure areas undetected.
And then they are apprehended or dealt with by the human element of the security patrols.
Ah, here we go... Another article, so these details aren't that top secret.
Apparently other marine mammals can do the job too.
Science Daily Apr 11, 2003...
There are probably other more secret missions for dolphins, but that's the security one that I remember hearing of. The reason the PETA/enviro-folks
don't like it, is that obviously there's risk that some marine mammals may be treated as potential combatants in future conflicts. It's not always
about the activity they're currently doing, even those have risks too.