Fish Radio
April 1, 2014
Ukraine combat dolphin
Credit: animalny.org
This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Sea creature commando units. I’ll tell you more after this —
Find out who’s catching all that seafood and their favorite recipes at a new micro site from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute – find it at www.wildalaskaflavor.com
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US combat dolphin with gun
Credit: guns.org
The world has been watching as Russia forcibly seized Crimea – it turns out Russia also stole Ukraine’s killer dolphin army, one of only two in the world. The other is with the US Navy in San Diego.
According to reports in The Atlantic and elsewhere, Ukraine’s bottlenose dolphin commando unit is trained to defend ships or attack enemy swimmers with special knives and pistols attached to their heads. The dolphins can retrieve lost equipment, and identify intruders swimming into restricted areas. Nothing man-made can ever match the combat dolphin’s sonar ability to find mines, say military leaders. When they find one the dolphin it swims back; the crew gives it a weighted buoy line or transponder to mark the mine’s location.
The Ukraine dolphins will join forces with Russia’s Shallow Water Intruder Detection System or “attack sea lion unit.” Sea lions don’t have sonar, but their keen eyesight zeroes in on objects 650 feet below the surface. Sea lions are regularly used to retrieve things, such as lost military hardware or weaponry. They also are trained to attach spring loaded clamps on enemy intruders, who can then be reeled in like fish.
The US Navy has been enlisting dolphins since the 1970s. They now have a fleet of 75 mine hunting dolphins maintained at a cost of about $14 million a year. The Navy also trains and uses beluga whales to mark and clamp targets because they can operate in colder and deeper waters.
Check out the line up this month at www.comfishalaska.com
Fish Radio is also brought to you by Ocean Beauty Seafoods – who salutes and says thanks to the men and women fishing across Alaska for their hard work and dedication. (www.oceanbeauty.com) In Kodiak, I’m Laine Welch.
