United States Navy Marine Mammal Program
The U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP) is a program administered by the U.S. Navy which studies the military use of marine mammals - principally bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions - and trains animals to perform tasks such as ship and harbor protection, mine detection and clearance, and equipment recovery.
The origins of the program date back to 1960, when a Pacific white-sided dolphin was acquired for hydrodynamic studies seeking to improve torpedo performance.
This research has now resumed with the benefit of modern-day technology; among the possible drag-reducing mechanisms being studied for human use are skin compliance, biopolymers, and boundary-layer heating.
In 1965, a Navy dolphin named Tuffy participated in the SEALAB II project off La Jolla, California, carrying tools and messages between the surface and the habitat 200 feet (60 m) below.
Additionally, a laboratory was established in Hawaii at the Marine Corps Air Station on Kāneʻohe Bay at the northern end of Mokapu Peninsula.
These teams can be deployed at 72 hours' notice by ship, aircraft, helicopter, and land vehicle to regional conflicts or staging areas around the world.
Three of the marine mammal teams are trained to detect enemy sea mines, which constitute a major hazard to U.S. Navy ships.
The MK 8 team is trained to swiftly identify safe corridors for the initial landing of troops ashore.
The Navy said these dolphins were effective in helping to detect more than 100 antiship mines and underwater booby traps from the port of Umm Qasr.
[4] MK 6 uses dolphins and sea lions as sentries to protect harbor installations and ships against unauthorized human swimmers.
The Navy states that this is to prevent their ingesting harmful objects, but opponents say that this is done to reinforce the handlers' control over the dolphins, which is based on food rewards.
The NMMP has received much sensational coverage in the media, in some part because of the unusual nature of the program and the controversial concept of using intelligent marine mammals for military purposes.
The NMMP was classified until the early 1990s, which also contributed to speculation about its true nature and even its proper title, with some referring to it as the Cetacean Intelligence Mission.
From time to time, stories have surfaced in the media claiming that military dolphins trained for attack missions, or even equipped with weaponry, have escaped and pose a danger to the public, but the Navy has stated that its dolphins have never been trained for any kind of attack mission against ships or people.
Vonda McIntyre published a short story titled "The End's Beginning" with this theme in 1976; it was later collected in the anthology Fireflood.
The William Gibson short story "Johnny Mnemonic" and its film adaptation also featured a cyborg dolphin Navy veteran named "Jones" with a talent for decryption, and a heroin addiction.
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) Blueprints by Rick Sternbach there are multiple cetacean operations locations on decks 13 & 14.
