http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.html

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.


I saw this on the SoE forums with the same heading and got a chuckle, but it's actually kind of serious.

The entire story is based on assumption. Someone who knows about the dolphins and knows where they are normally kept sees that their normal "storage" habitat has been washed out by the hurricane. First assumption? They are free in the gulf, targeting little surfer Billy.

I find the whole thing hard to believe (training dolphins to kill...), but lets say it's true. These animals would have been bread for obedience. They wouldn't be some random dolphins that they grabbed out of the ocean on a whim. As such, they wouldn't be so eager to leave their home waters, even if they did get out of their normal holding. Think about it... they'd have been trained to not swim away when they were released to investigate "divers around a boat".

Its about the same likelyhood that an extremely well trained police dog would, when given a chance, escape its master, go rogue, and start attacking men in puffy jackets. They are trained to attack on command. Not on a whim.

But... anything is possible.

...police dog would, when given a chance, escape its master, go rogue, and start attacking men in puffy jackets.



Now that's funny! :D

The dolphins are trained to attack "intruders" around specific areas without specific command. The question will be if they consider themselves "on duty" wherever they happen to be right now.

I kind of doubt they present any major hazard- they are very smart and should be able to distinguish valid targets from beach-goers (not that anyone is going to be swimming in the mess off the coast for quite a while anyway).

If it is true they would most likely die if not found. Captive dolphins who are fed daily don't really fair well on thier own in the wild.

I always think of The Onion (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28315) in times like these,...but the dolphins in that area may not have been trained to be the hideous pitbulls of the sea. Here's an article from Mississippi with happy (http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=1202765) dolphins, looking for mines. Do we know that the dolphins were taught to shoot first and ask questions later?

That reminds me of something I heard on the radio today from a guy who sponsors this (http://www.weatherwars.info/) as interviewed on Glenn Beck today. Was quite hilarious listening to him.

Time to set loose the trained California sea lions to round em up?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/whales/etc/navycron.html

Remind me to re-read Startide Rising by David Brin.