Military analysts believe dolphins are being deployed to protect a Russian navy base in the embattled Crimea, according to new satellite images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The photographs appear to show dolphin pens in Sevastopol’s harbor, Crimea’s main city and a significant port with views out to the Black Sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The photographs have aroused fears that marine life is being militarized in order to obstruct Ukrainian activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a research by the US Naval Institute, the mammals are employed to dissuade underwater missions by identifying swimmers and mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maxar Technologies, which has been providing shots of the fighting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, has released the satellite images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the USNI study, it is unclear whether Ukraine’s military wants to damage the installation, but it does describe how marine mammal programmes train animals to perform protective functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the article, this might prevent Ukrainian special operations personnel from penetrating the harbor underwater to sabotage warships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Forces News, the US has a Mark 7 Marine Mammal System, also known as a bottlenose dolphin, to detect marine mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gervase Phillips, a history, politics, and philosophy lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, spoke to Forces News on the role of militarized animals before Russia’s invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We don’t have anything like a dog’s nose to smell explosives yet, and nothing as good as a dolphin or a sea lion in finding items on the bottom,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are a variety of military functions for which we have no realistic substitute.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US Navy began studying dolphins in 1960, with the intention of improving the hydrodynamics of its torpedoes as well as its ability to identify items under water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, the program’s reach appeared to be swiftly expanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Soon after, dolphins were being trained to find enemy mines and misplaced goods on the seafloor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a report from Manchester Metropolitan University, the Soviet Union is thought to have taught dolphins in a facility in Crimea on the Black Sea in a similar fashion to the Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the breakup of the Union, many of these dolphins were transferred to Iran, according to the BBC in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ukrainian Navy reopened the facility in 2012, but since Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014, it has been back in Russian hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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