Armies have been trying to harness the capabilities of marine animals like porpoises and sea lions for decades.
Norwegian fishermen were reportedly approached recently by a beluga whale wearing a Russian harness, complete with GoPro camera holder, sparking speculation that the animal had been trained to gather intelligence by the Russian Navy. While this theory has not been confirmed, it is entirely plausible: armed forces around the world have a long and disturbing history of exploiting marine mammals.
Navy dolphinsThese efforts were revived by the United States and other nations during the Cold War, following the discovery that dolphins use echolocation to navigate underwater, emitting high frequency “clicking” sounds and listening for the echos that bounce back off their surroundings to locate and identify nearby objects.
Self-propelled marine vehicle[s], or platform[s]; with a built-in sonar sensor system suitable for detecting and classifying targets; and carrying an on-board computer … capable of being programmed for complex performance. Protests for porpoisesThe use of these animals for military purposes has caused much controversy over the years. One of the more disturbing questions concerns what exactly these dolphins have been trained to do, should they encounter enemy saboteurs. In 1976, Michael Greenwood—a veteran of the Navy dolphin project—claimed that dolphins assigned to the “swimmer nullification program” were equipped with syringes filled with carbon dioxide to kill intruders.
Certainly, a great deal of the secrecy continues to surround the military use of sea mammals. And as Morrison observed as far back as 1989, this reflects “the fear of exciting public opposition to its efforts, opposition sparked by the great affinity that so many humans feel for these engaging creatures”.
Whatever the exact origin of the beluga whale discovered in Norwegian waters, the story serves as a reminder that marine mammals are still commonly exploited for military purposes in the modern world. Their replacement by robotic submersibles seems, at the moment, a regrettably distant prospect.
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