The Navy Is Depending on Dolphins to Keep the Strait of Hormuz Open

[Are_grits_groceries]

If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy has a backup plan to save one-fifth of the world's daily oil trade: send in the dolphins. 

The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today's New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran's supreme leader that such moves would cross a "red line" provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, “The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines.” To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn't heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins.

"We've got dolphins," said retired Adm. Tim Keating in a Wednesday interview with NPR. Keating commanded the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain during the run-up to the Iraq war. He sounded uncomfortable with elaborating on the Navy's use of the lovable mammals but said in a situation like the standoff in Hormuz, Navy-trained dolphins would come in handy:.
<snip>

The invasion of Iraq was the last time the minesweeping capability of dolphins were widely-touted. "Dolphins - - which possess sonar so keen they can discern a quarter from a dime when blindfolded and spot a 3-inch metal sphere from 370 feet away -- are invaluable minesweepers," reported The San Francisco Chronicle. In 2010, the Seattle Times reported that the Navy has 80 bottlenose dolphins in the San Diego Bay alone. They are taught to hunt for mines and drop acoustic transponders nearby. The photo above shows a dolphin with a tracking device attached to its fin. According to a report in 2003, the dolphins only detect the mines. Destroying them is left up to the Navy's human divers. Still, the mammals are large enough to detonate a live mine, a prospect that doesn't delight animal rights groups. 

More:http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/01/militarys-weapon-against-iranian-mines-high-tech-dolphins/47384/

They mess them up with sonar without a care, but use them when it suits their purposes.
Bastids!

[JVS]

1. I wonder if the other dolphins consider these dolphins to be collaborators with the humans.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Vichy dolphins? Hmmmmmmmm....... nt

[closeupready]

5. LOL - trying to envision how they'd be punished by dophin patriots, since they're already bald.

[Are_grits_groceries]

7. Maybe they would dryboard them. nt

[JVS]

9. Dolphins seem to operate by fighting.

&feature=fvsr

[xchrom]

2. the U.S. has become nothing short of bizarre. nt

[Robb]

4. Every other part of this story notwithstanding

...that first picture is nothing short of an awesome shot.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. What if Iran also has dolphins?

[polly7]

8. del.

[justiceischeap]

10. Where do we get the dolphins?

It immediately makes me think of the documentary, The Cove.

The Cove exposes not only the tragedy of dolphin slaughtering in Japan, but also the dangerously high levels of mercury in dolphin meat and seafood, the cruelty in capturing dolphins for entertainment, and the depletion of our oceans fisheries by worldwide seafood consumption. We also see how the mandate of the International Whaling Commission has been manipulated by the Japanese Fisheries Agency for its benefit and its subsequent effect on the rest of the world.