LONDON — After reviewing satellite imagery of a key port in Crimea, the US Naval Institute found that Moscow had used trained dolphins to protect a Black Sea naval base from possible Ukrainian attacks. Submarine analyst HI Sutton said two transportable dolphin pens were brought to the port of Sevastopol in February, the same month Russia invaded Ukraine. The mammals, the analyst said, could be used to stop enemy divers from infiltrating the port and sabotaging Russian warships.
A satellite image released Friday shows dolphin pens set up at the entrance to Crimea’s Sevastopol Bay. (Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters)
Has Russia ever used marine mammals for military purposes?
According to the Moscow Times, Russia has been training marine mammals since Soviet times. In the late 1960s, the Soviet Union used the port of Sevastopol as a base to train dolphins and whales in activities such as finding mines and planting explosives, and it is also believed that the Soviets trained sea creatures to aim at underwater targets kill. However, this program was thought to have been neglected as the Soviet Union disintegrated in the 1990s. In 2012, Russia denied a report that claimed it was developing a military training program for dolphins to attack enemy divers with head-mounted weapons.
A trainer works with a dolphin formerly owned by a top-secret Soviet Navy division at the Sevastopol military port.
Prior to Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the aquarium in Sevastopol – which was then part of Ukraine – had been teaching dolphins to swim with children with special needs and had been used in various therapy sessions. However, after the region was taken by Kremlin-led forces, an employee at the aquarium told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti that the dolphins and seals were going back to military training. The staffer reportedly said engineers were working on developing the program, which would use marine mammals to find sunken objects and enemy divers using their sonar communications systems.
Viktor Baranets, a Russian reserve colonel, confirmed to a Russian broadcaster in 2019: “We have military dolphins for combat roles; we don’t cover that up.
The story goes on
A member of the Ukrainian military trains a marine mammal on the Crimean peninsula in 1992. (Wojtek Laski/Getty Images)
“In Sevastopol we have a center for military dolphins, which are trained to solve various tasks, from analyzing the seabed to protecting a body of water, killing foreign divers and planting mines on the hulls of foreign ships.”
In 2016, the Russian Defense Ministry bought five bottlenose dolphins. The mammals were purchased for $26,000 – $5,200 each – and it was not disclosed what role they would play.
Two years later, a report by Russian Defense Ministry-owned TV channel Zvezda revealed that the Navy had been training beluga whales, dolphins and seals in Arctic waters, the Guardian reported. The report said belugas were pulled from the program when they became ill after a long swim in the freezing waters, according to the Siberian Times.
A dolphin plays with a ball during a training session at the Sevastopol Dolphinarium in 2014. (Sergei Ilnitsky/EFE/EPA/ZUMA Press)
But it seemed like belugas hadn’t been dropped by the Russian Navy when a beluga was found off the coast of Norway in 2019. The whale, wearing a harness with a pouch to hold a GoPro inscribed with the words “Equipment of St. Petersburg,” was spotted by fishermen after it began harassing their boats. Marine experts believed that the beluga’s odd behavior was due to its possible military training.
“If this whale comes from Russia, and there is good reason to believe, then it’s not Russian scientists, it’s the Navy that did it,” Martin Biuw of Norway’s Institute for Marine Research told the Guardian.
But Baranets shot down the beluga’s connection to Russia, saying at the time: “If we were to use this animal for spying, do you really think we would attach a mobile phone number with the message ‘Please call this number’?”
Have other countries done the same?
A bottlenose dolphin jumps out of the water during demining training in the Arabian Gulf in 2003. (Brien Aho/US Navy via Reuters)
There are two known military dolphin training facilities in the world, one in Sevastopol and the other at the NIWC Pacific or Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego. The US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions since the Vietnam War. In 1969, an experimental Navy project called Project Deep Ops saw two killer whales and a pilot whale being trained to recover objects lost in the ocean that were inaccessible to machines and divers. Animals such as California sea lions and bottlenose dolphins have been used to detect mines on the sea floor.
Why use dolphins, sea lions and whales?
A marine mammal is fitted with a cage and an instrument during training to search for mines and saboteurs on the Crimean peninsula in 1992. (Wojtek Laski/Getty Images)
There are a number of reasons why marine mammals such as dolphins, sea lions and whales are used for military purposes. Because of their sonar communication systems and their ability to dive deep, the animals are far more effective than any newer technology.
“That’s not surprising [Russian President Vladimir] Putin of all people would think dolphins are a weapon of war,” Andrew Lambert, professor of naval history at King’s College London, told NBC News. “Like so much of what we see in Ukraine, it is the work of the Soviet Union being reenacted by the current Russian government.” He added of the dolphins: “This is their world and they will love you underwater, find very quickly.”
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