US Satellite Images Reveal Russia Deploying Military Dolphins in the Black Sea; What Are They For?

Russia reportedly deployed trained military dolphins at its naval base in the Black Sea, presumably to shield its fleet from an underwater attack, according to the US Naval Institute (USNI).

The USNI analyzed satellite photos of the Russian naval station at Sevastopol harbor and concluded that a couple of dolphin pens were transferred to the base at the beginning of the Russian-Ukraine war in February.

Russia has a long history of employing dolphins for military activities, including retrieving items or repelling enemy divers, as per a report from The Guardian.

The Russian army sees the Sevastopol naval station as a crucial facility since it is located on the southern edge of Crimea, which Moscow captured in 2014. Many of the Russian ships stationed there, while out of missile range, could be exposed to submarine assaults, according to the USNI's study.

In a program developed from a Soviet-era initiative that went into inactivity in the 1990s, Ukraine had also trained dolphins at an aquarium near Sevastopol.

Training Sea Creatures for Military Purposes Since Cold War

During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union experimented with using dolphins with echolocation ability to identify underwater items such as mines.

Since 1959, the US Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions as comrades to help Sailors and Marines defend against threats underwater. In the 1960s, Point Loma has been home to the Navy's Marine Mammal Program.

More than a dozen diverse species of marine mammals, as well as sharks, rays, sea turtles, and aquatic birds, were tested, and their sensory and physical capacities were explored in the early years of the program.

At present, the Navy relies on two species: the Bottlenose dolphin and the California sea lion. According to the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific website, "Both are known for their trainability and adaptability to a wide range of marine environments."

The San Diego-based US Navy marine mammal training program was declassified in the 1990s. This made it simpler for officials to refute animal rights groups' allegations that the creatures were deployed as weapons, a concept popularized by the 1973 science-fiction film "The Day of the Dolphin."

In the movie, a scientist trains dolphins to communicate with humans, but they are kidnapped to be utilized in a political assassination scheme.

Does Russia Train Dolphins To Attack Enemies?

During the Soviet era, Russia allegedly used the Sevastopol facility to train dolphins for military objectives, including putting bombs on ships or detecting mines. It's debatable whether they were ever used in military actions, per Washington Post.

Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine used the Sevastopol facility to teach dolphins for treatment sessions. The Moscow Times reported at the time that after taking control of the port city in 2014, Russia restarted the training of military marine mammals.

According to media accounts, a white whale wearing a harness appeared in Norway in 2019, prompting local marine specialists to assume that they'd come across a species part of a Russian naval training program. Subsequently, locals named the whale "Hvaldimir," a mix of the Norwegian term for whale and Russian President Vladimir Putin's first name.

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Dolphins, Russia, Vladimir putin, United States, Navy, Black Sea