Trained dolphins guarding Russia's military assets in Black Sea port: Report

NEW DELHI: Dolphins as sentinels in modern-day warfare? Strange it may sound, but true, if a report on an private American not-for-profit portal is to be believed!

USNI News, the online news portal of United States Naval Institute says in the report that Russia has deployed trained dolphins to protect a Black Sea naval base.

The Russian Navy has placed two dolphin pens at the entrance to the crucial

Sevastopol

harbour just before the Ukraine invasion, the report says, citing reviews of satellite imagery.

However employing trained dolphins or other marine mammals to 'guard' vital military installations is not exactly novel.

During the Cold War the Soviet Navy developed several marine mammal programs, including dolphin training in the Black Sea. The unit was based at Kazachya Bukhta near Sevastopol, where it still is today. The US too has similar programs for guarding marine assets, the report says.

Inside the Sevastopol port, many high-value Russian Navy ships are arranged out of range of Ukrainian missiles but vulnerable to undersea sabotage, according to satellite photos. The dolphins may be tasked with counter-diver operations, the report claims.

In 2018 the Black Sea Fleet’s dolphins were deployed for several months to Russia’s Mediterranean Sea naval base in Tartus, Syria, according to satellite photos.

This is all part of the Russian military’s wider reinvestment in marine mammal programs in the past 10 years.

This has included the Black Sea Fleet’s unit and a separate operation in the Arctic, that uses different types of marine mammals including beluga whales and seals, the report says.

On April 23, 2019, a trained beluga whale turned up in northern Norway. Nicknamed ‘Hvaldimir’ by the locals, it is believed that this whale escaped from the Russian Navy program, according to the BBC.

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