Comrades Below The Sea: Beluga Whales and Dolphins Trained to be Spies for the U.S. and Russian Navy

Written by: Leilani Setyawan

From the strength of horses for mobilization to birds’ ability to send letters, animals’ highly evolved capabilities are often used by humans to fulfill our needs. Now, animals are also being trained for military purposes. In 2019, fishermen on Norway’s northern coast were astounded when they spotted a beluga whale with a harness that appeared custom-made, assumed by the Russian military, with GoPro cameras on each side. Jordan Ree Wiig, a marine biologist at Norway’s Directorate of Fisheries, told CNN that. “Equipment St. Petersburg” was written on the harness clips, which made it believable that the whale came from Murmansk, Russia, and was trained by the Russian navy.

Historically, this wasn’t the first time this phenomenon took place. Martin Biuw, a marine mammal researcher at Norway’s Institute of Marine Research, said that since the Cold War, the Russian military trained belugas to sniff out mines or old torpedoes. Not just the Russian military, in 1960, to detect sea mines, to recover inert torpedoes, and test objects used in naval exercises, the U.S. Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions. Until the 1990s, this program was kept secret. However, it’s more transparent since then due to the effectiveness of using sea mammals for military operations. During the Iraq war, the U.S. Navy deployed dolphins to help humanitarian ships safely deliver aid by performing mine detection and clearance operations in the Persian Gulf. To CNN, Mike Rothe, Marine Mammal Program Director, said that their natural biosonar and incredible underwater eyesight are better than any human technology to do military operations.

To respond to the U.S. Navy’s strategy of using marine mammals for military purposes, the Russian Navy opened its underwater program on the Black Sea near Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula in 1965. In 1984, they also made a second center called the Murmansk Marine Biological Institute on the Arctic Ocean. After several years of using the underwater small arms that benefited NATO in World War II, a declassified 1976 CIA report reveals the suffering of these marine mammals. Dolphins died from being fed un-thawed frozen fish, lack of proper medical care, and inadequate environmental conditioning. They did not have professional handlers or scientific expertise. By 1974, only two out of fifteen dolphins survived transportation to the facility.

Today, the policy of using marine mammals is programmed and administered by the U.S. Navy, especially bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions, to be trained and to perform tasks such as protecting ships and harbors, detecting and clearing mines, and recovering equipment. This program is partnered with the United States Department of Defense requirements and several federal laws regarding animal welfare, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Animal Welfare Act. However, it is still an ongoing debate on whether or not the usage of animals for military purposes is worth the risk.

References

Frater, J., & Guy, J. (2023, May 24). Norway warns people to keep away from ‘spy’ whale for animal’s safety. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/24/europe/norway-spy-whale-warning-scli-intl/index.html

Lee, J. J. (2019, May 3). Military whales and dolphins: What do they do and who uses them? National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/140328-navy-dolphin-sea-lion-combat-ocean-animal-science

Marine Mammal Program — NIWC Pacific. (n.d.). NIWC Pacific. Retrieved May 25, 2023, from https://www.niwcpacific.navy.mil/marine-mammal-program/