Dolphins called in to patrol the Gulf

The US navy has deployed highly trained dolphins in the Gulf to help protect coalition ships and piers against terrorist attacks by providing early warning of hostile swimmers.

“If there are any uninvited guests – swimmers and divers – trying to cause harm to US and coalition naval assets, the dolphins can detect and locate them,” said Lieutenant Josh Frey, a spokesman of the 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain.

Citing security reasons, Lieutenant Commander Martin Anderson declined to divulge how many dolphins have been brought in, when they were deployed and why they were brought to the region now.

“We have a good enough reason to employ them here,” said Anderson, who commands the Naval Forces Central Command Special Operations at the 5th Fleet base.

“They are trained to look out and they do very well at it,” said Anderson as a 400-pound dolphin named Luke made a brief appearance at Bahrain’s Mina Salman port, swimming alongside a Navy patrol boat.

After a brief surveillance, the 29-year-old, nine-foot-long dolphin stood on its tail to receive a fish – his reward – that a Navy handler on the patrol boat threw in his direction.

Dolphins were last used in Bahrain in the late 1980s during the Iran-Iraq war, during which several oil tankers in the Gulf were attacked. At the time, six dolphins patrolled the Bahrain harbour to protect US ships from mines and enemy swimmers and escorted Kuwaiti oil tankers through potentially dangerous waters.

The dolphins are trained to detect, locate and mark a swimmer or diver and alert their handlers of their presence. Handlers normally suspend a ball attached to a string from the patrol boat which the dolphins knock if they detect anything suspicious.

The Navy started using marine mammals in the early 1960s, when scientists began investigating whether the ultra-sleek shape of dolphins had hydrodynamic qualities that could be used to improve underwater missiles.

It used dolphins in the 1970s during the Vietnam War and more recently in the war on Iraq that ousted Saddam Hussein’s regime from power.

The deployment of the dolphins followed the departure of sea lions that were in the region for several months to be trained and tested for their “force protection capabilities,” said Frey, without disclosing the deployment timelines.

The sea lions “did well” in their demonstration in the region, Frey said without elaborating.