Brandon Farrow
Mrs. Cox
English 1
11/11/13

Navy Dolphins

Dolphins are smart and amazing creatures. Scientists say they might almost be smarter than humans; they adapt really quick to their environment. The Navy is one branch of the United States armed forces that conducts military operations at sea. The Navy has programs with animals to help them protect the nation. The Navy and dolphins work together to control warfare in the water by using their sonar to track underwater mines and to keep citizens safe. These next paragraphs will explain how the dolphins and navy work together.
One of the first dolphins used by the Navy was Tuffy. “Tuf Goy [Tuffy] joined the marine mammal program at Point Mugu in May 1964. By the end of September of 1964, Tuffy was retrieving a ring from the bottom of the lagoon at a depth of 200 feet” (Wood, 1973). In July of 1965, Tuffy was asked to participate in the Sealab II project with his main job being to help with the rescuing of a lost diver. Tuffy had a secondary job also of “carrying small objects-tools, for example-from the surface down to aquanauts working outside the habitat.” (Wood, 1973) “Tuffy repeatedly dove 200 feet to the Sea Lab II installation, carrying mail and tools to navy personal. To prepare for underwater tasks, Tuffy trained for six weeks and “learned to respond to a noise buzzer for the tests” (Presnall, 2002,) Judith Presnall’s book Navy Dolphins (2002), gives a visual image of Tuffy in training for rescuing lost aquanauts:An aquanaut placed a ring on Tuffy’s nose with a line attached and shut off his buzzer. About one hundred eighty feet away, a second aquanaut pretended to be lost. He signaled Tuffy with his buzzer to bring the line. Tuffy brought the line to the lost diver, who removed it from Tuffy’s nose and followed the line back home.
In October of 1965, Tuffy was requested by the Regulus project officer to locate cradle missiles for divers to recover (Wood, 1973). The first attempt of Tuffy to indicate the cradle missile failed but the second attempt in late October was successful and Tuffy indicated and found a $4,700 cradle missile and successfully recovered it. Tuffy did not stop there; he then started locating drill mines for the Pacific Marine Force (Wood, 1973).
Dolphins continue to be trained for the Navy and are still being used today. “To train [dolphins] for finding real mines, dolphins first practice looking for fake mines with no explosives” (Persnall, 2002). In Ashley Barforoush’s 2012 article, the author explains that trainers set up practice mines in the San Diego Harbor, and after just a few exercises the dolphins know exactly where to find the fake mines. She then quotes an expert, on dolphin training, saying; “they rearrange the course to make a different “Easter Egg Hunt” (Barforoush, 2012). Handlers train dolphins to never touch the target mines by making them all different shapes and sizes (Persnall 2002). On page 28-29 of Navy Dolphins it explains how the dolphins are safe from the harm of an exploding mine. Whenever the dolphin swims close to the object [fake mine], the trainer blows his whistle, then rewards the dolphin with a fish. Soon the dolphin realizes that whenever it swims close to this object, it is rewarded. Thus, it tends too swim close to often. If the dolphin touches or swims too close to the object, it is not rewarded. Eventually the dolphin is given a marker and learns to place it near the object, but not on it—again being rewarded for remaining safe distance from the mine.
The dolphins have very high-level biological sonar so they can easily find mines. Budzyna explains that dolphins can find mines whether they are buried on the ocean floor or floating around. Although dolphin training seems easy, dolphins are animals and are unpredictable in their nature, which makes them difficult to use. In the book Navy Dolphins, “dolphins become scared, feed on other fish in the ocean, and follow different boats losing track of their task; then there is always the possibility of weather trouble” (Presnall, 2002,). Training dolphins takes a long four to five years, and then the dolphins are ready for deployment. Dolphins were placed in Cam Ranh Bay to patrol the dock areas (Presnall, 2002). Dolphins have been used by the Navy in the Persian Gulf to protect Navy anchored vessels from enemy swimmer seeking to plant explosives. The dolphins would swim slowly, patrolling the area with their sonar, and alert armed trainer guards if they located a swimmer. In 2003, in the Iraqi War, dolphins were used to hunt mines in the harbor of Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf so ships could go through the port.
The Navy has tried using whales, sea lions, and other mammals, but “the Navy prefers using bottlenose dolphins for a number of reasons. Bottlenose dolphins populate a wide variety of the world’s oceans, so they can be used in many places.” Also “their size allows them to be carried easily in boats, helicopters, and airplanes” (Presnall, 2002). “Bottlenose dolphins were first used in the military during the Vietnam War” (Presnall, 2002)
When the Navy used human divers to retrieve weapons, it was expensive. It took two divers to retrieve the missile, and two other divers, halfway down, to keep an eye on the first pair. Also, on surface the Navy had to provide medical personnel and equipment for divers who might experience difficulty. Humans, using scuba gear, can dive down only about 130 feet. But dolphins can easily dive to depths between 690 and 990 feet to retrieve equipment.
Dolphins continue to be used not only in the U.S. Navy but in other government. Dolphins trained by the Soviet Navy for military operations are now used for therapy with autistic and emotionally disturbed children. Even though the training of dolphins is intense and a lengthy process, dolphins have proven to be versatile and successful to the Navy.