The US Naval Institute has discovered two dolphin pens at the Russian naval base in Sevastopol in the Black Sea. These mammals are trained to prevent an underwater attack.
Dolphins for War. The US Naval Institute announced Thursday that it spotted fighting dolphins near the port of Sevastopol in the Black Sea in February. Russia uses these animals to protect its strategic port related to the war in Ukraine.
Satellite images spotted two dolphin pens placed at the entrance to the port, just inside a breakwater at the Russian naval base. “They were transferred there in February, at the time of the invasion of Ukraine,” the institute explains.
The most powerful sonar in the world
These dolphins were not placed here for the public but as a weapon in the war in Ukraine. These mammals have the world’s most powerful sonar, can locate objects hundreds of meters away, and have the ability to dive to very great distances. This makes it a more powerful weapon than some submarines.
According to the American institute, “dolphins can be tasked with low-angle operators.”
Annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014, the Sevastopol naval base in Crimea is home to many Russian warships and is a prime target for the Ukrainian army. It’s out of range of Ukrainian missiles, but Russia fears a submarine attack on the port and wants another shipwreck like the Moskva’s on March 18.
“Dolphins could prevent Ukrainian special forces from infiltrating the water to sabotage warships,” the American organization said.
Training centers during the Cold War
This isn’t the first time these animals have been used for warlike purposes. During the Cold War, the USSR and the United States established centers to train marine mammals to spot enemies or recover items at sea.
The Kazachya unit, about fifteen kilometers from Sevastopol, was also taken over by Moscow in 2014 as part of the Crimean annexation. Dolphin training programs then resumed, according to the US Naval Institute.
In 2019, fishermen found a beluga wearing a harness off the island of Ingøya in northern Norway, suggesting it had escaped a Russian naval program.