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Timble2 Imaginary person Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Total posts: 7114 Location: Practically in Narnia Age: 58 Gender: Female |
 Posted: 25-09-2005 12:16 Post subject: Katrina frees dolphins trained as assassins |
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This story sounds like the plot of a hollywood thriller (possibly based on a novel by Michael Crichton). I'm not sure if it's true in the sense of actuallly having happened...
The Observer
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Armed and dangerous - Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina
by Mark Townsend Houston
Sunday September 25, 2005
The Observer
It may be the oddest tale to emerge from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Armed dolphins, trained by the US military to shoot terrorists and pinpoint spies underwater, may be missing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.
Dolphins have been trained in attack-and-kill missions since the Cold War. The US Atlantic bottlenose dolphins have apparently been taught to shoot terrorists attacking military vessels. Their coastal compound was breached during the storm, sweeping them out to sea. But those who have studied the controversial use of dolphins in the US defence programme claim it is vital they are caught quickly.
Leo Sheridan, 72, a respected accident investigator who has worked for government and industry, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the US government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.
'My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire,' he said. 'The darts are designed to put the target to sleep so they can be interrogated later, but what happens if the victim is not found for hours?'
Usually dolphins were controlled via signals transmitted through a neck harness. 'The question is, were these dolphins made secure before Katrina struck?' said Sheridan.
The mystery surfaced when a separate group of dolphins was washed from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast during Katrina. Eight were found with the navy's help, but the dolphins were not returned until US navy scientists had examined them.
Sheridan is convinced the scientists were keen to ensure the dolphins were not the navy's, understood to be kept in training ponds in a sound in Louisiana, close to Lake Pontchartrain, whose waters devastated New Orleans.
The navy launched the classified Cetacean Intelligence Mission in San Diego in 1989, where dolphins, fitted with harnesses and small electrodes planted under their skin, were taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbour and stationary warships at sea.
Criticism from animal rights groups ensured the use of dolphins became more secretive. But the project gained impetus after the Yemen terror attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Dolphins have also been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port.
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| theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11704 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 25-09-2005 12:20 Post subject: Re: Katrina frees dolphins trained as assassins |
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| Timble2 wrote: | | I'm not sure if it's true in the sense of actuallly having happened... |
We really shouldn't be getting Dolphins involved in this kind of thing though. It's not on. |
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| MaxMolyneux Photography Ninja Of The Night!
Great Old One Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Total posts: 1651 Location: Liverpool England United Kingdom Age: 27 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-09-2005 12:46 Post subject: |
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| Would the neck harness have the gun on it too? They'd have to have something like in the Dolphins mouth to make the gun go off though or something the Dolphin could do to set a gun off. |
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| H_James Ancient Cow (&)
Creepy thing Joined: 18 May 2002 Total posts: 5624 |
| Posted: 25-09-2005 13:04 Post subject: |
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| That's just weird. I am lost for words. |
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| gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13561 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-09-2005 18:49 Post subject: |
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| Anyone remember the book or film Day of the Dolphin? In that, the dolphins talk as well as being trained to attach bombs to ships. "Pa! Fa!" |
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| MaxMolyneux Photography Ninja Of The Night!
Great Old One Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Total posts: 1651 Location: Liverpool England United Kingdom Age: 27 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-09-2005 19:40 Post subject: |
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| gncxx wrote: | | Anyone remember the book or film Day of the Dolphin? In that, the dolphins talk as well as being trained to attach bombs to ships. "Pa! Fa!" |
No but I remember a Simpsons with Dolphins taking over Springfield in a halloween special.  |
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| Timble2 Imaginary person Joined: 09 Feb 2003 Total posts: 7114 Location: Practically in Narnia Age: 58 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 25-09-2005 20:47 Post subject: |
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| gncxx wrote: | | Anyone remember the book or film Day of the Dolphin? In that, the dolphins talk as well as being trained to attach bombs to ships. "Pa! Fa!" |
Yes, that's going back a bit. Not very good IIRC. |
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| daisys1 My feet, yesterday Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Total posts: 41 Location: Halifax Age: 34 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 00:10 Post subject: so long and thanks for all the fish |
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Like a cross between the life aquatic, the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy and Deep Blue Sea.... nightmarish. Maybe they're all out there capping great whites, having a whale of a time..
geddit?
kisses |
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| MaxMolyneux Photography Ninja Of The Night!
Great Old One Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Total posts: 1651 Location: Liverpool England United Kingdom Age: 27 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 01:29 Post subject: Re: so long and thanks for all the fish |
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| daisys1 wrote: | Like a cross between the life aquatic, the hitchiker's guide to the galaxy and Deep Blue Sea.... nightmarish. Maybe they're all out there capping great whites, having a whale of a time..
geddit?
kisses |
I don't get it!   |
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| daisys1 My feet, yesterday Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Total posts: 41 Location: Halifax Age: 34 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 01:34 Post subject: |
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I hope you do.
Or am I just so rooted in popular culture I make jokes that don't exist?
This one is mamalian actually, do I need to spell it out? Or are you pulling my leg.
We should all be in bed.  |
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| MaxMolyneux Photography Ninja Of The Night!
Great Old One Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Total posts: 1651 Location: Liverpool England United Kingdom Age: 27 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 01:39 Post subject: |
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| I don't genuinly get that joke. |
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| daisys1 My feet, yesterday Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Total posts: 41 Location: Halifax Age: 34 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 01:43 Post subject: |
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"whale of a time"
dolphin? Having a whale of a time? Whale - dolphin?
Maybe it's not even a joke, it's certainly not funny - I wouldn't argue with that.
I really am giving up and going to bed.
Later max
x[/quote] |
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| MaxMolyneux Photography Ninja Of The Night!
Great Old One Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Total posts: 1651 Location: Liverpool England United Kingdom Age: 27 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 01:44 Post subject: |
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| daisys1 wrote: | "whale of a time"
dolphin? Having a whale of a time? Whale - dolphin?
Maybe it's not even a joke, it's certainly not funny - I wouldn't argue with that.
I really am giving up and going to bed.
Later max
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Yeah I get that bit but thought it wasn't a joke.  |
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| wembley8 Home of Legends Joined: 24 Jan 2003 Total posts: 2001 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 30-09-2005 12:22 Post subject: |
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If such a harness really existed, do you really think that the dolphins go around wearing them 24/7 and not just when they are on a mission, or that they would work anything like as described?
The story is full of holes and the source does not have the greatest track record, but there have always been questions over the ethics of the USN's Marine Mammal program.
However, given the number of marine mammals that get exterminated by the USN's indiscriminate use of high-powered sonar, I'm not convinced this one is so much of an issue. |
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| tygerkat Great Old One Joined: 01 Apr 2005 Total posts: 183 Location: Good ole USA Age: 45 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 08-10-2005 05:28 Post subject: |
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Somebody saw Austin Powers and decided to turn the rescue of those 8 oceanarium dolphins into something more sinister. I visited my usual source for debunking stories like this and followed a link to MSN. The dolphins are trained to hunt for mines and the like, not attack anyone. And even if they were, like wembley8 said, would they really have the dart guns on them 24/7? Of course not. And there was plenty of time before the hurricane hit to relocate the dolphins or at least insure they were secure and would not get sept away. If the military really had spent all this money training dolphins to shoot people, would they risk losing them when they had ample time to protect them?
daisys1, I got your joke and chuckled. Okay, so I actually snorted instead at the pun but it was, obviuosly, a joke. |
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