Dolphins and Sea Lions Have Apparently Been Used By the U.S. Navy For More Than 60 Years

So what are these marine mammals doing in the military? Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.

Transcript

00:00Did you know that since 1959, the U.S. Navy has had aquatic animals in their employ?

00:04Insider reports that both dolphins and sea lions, two highly trainable marine mammals,

00:09have been used for everything from equipment retrieval to locating and disabling underwater

00:13mines. The use of the animals for the latter, a dangerous endeavor, was supposed to end this year,

00:18but without a technological replacement that could equal the sea creatures' innate abilities,

00:22Congress voted to continue to use the animals until a sufficient tech-based underwater mine

00:26disabling device was developed. But it begs the question, what can a dolphin or a sea lion do that

00:31an underwater drone can't? Well, dolphins have a natural sonar that is actually more accurate than

00:35our electronic variety, and sea lions are extremely good at spotting mines or noticing enemy personnel

00:41underwater, utilizing their highly attuned whiskers and eyes, meaning each might see things we miss

00:46and can also do so at a greater depth. Sea lions can dive down some 900 feet underwater,

00:51meanwhile dolphins can go deeper than a thousand. But a lot of their work is security-related,

00:55as the Battalion of Oceanic Mammals are constantly swimming around Navy yards,

00:59ensuring there aren't any enemy saboteurs readying an attack. So what happens to these marine mammals

01:04if the program ends? Well, the Navy says they will remain in their care for the rest of their lives,

01:08as at least dolphins released back into the wild tend not to fare too well.