Sea lion madness

Taken from Divernet:

SEA LIONS DEPLOYED TO DETECT DIVERS IN PERSIAN GULF

US Navy-trained sea lions are being deployed in the Persian Gulf to protect military shipping by detecting and attaching marker buoys to any divers in the water.

20 sea lions have been trained at the US Naval Warfare Systems Center is San Diego and an undisclosed number have been flown to Bahrain to assist the Harbor Patrol Unit guarding the US Navy's 5th fleet against attack. The animals are used to detect divers in the water, and will attach a 'C' shaped clamp, similar to a handcuff, to a diver's leg. A floating marker buoy is then deployed from the clamp by the sea lion. This signal, accompanied by a barrage of loud barks, leaves noone in any doubt about the position of an underwater intruder.

Sea lions are considered particularly well-suited to this role because they adapt easily to warm water conditions, can dive repeatedly and swim up to 25 miles per hour, see in near-darkness and have multi-directional hearing. In training exercises, the sea lions even pursue divers out of the water and onto dry land.

25 February 2003

Thought it was April 1st when I read this! Surely this is wind up?

Mark

Whoah! That's cool.

They should let one of those loose in Monterey.

That's almost too bizarre not to be true. What a great idea, if it is! I can just imagine the conversations that the trainers would have at parties.

"So, what do you do for a living?"

"I train sea lions to hunt out and identify enemy divers that seek to threaten the lives of our enlisted men."

Coooooooolll....

I hope none of the sealions go AWOL in the San Diego area or they scrap the project and let the sealion free. I wouldn't imagine it would be very pleasent to have a sealion use their mouth to clamp something on your leg (ouch). I don't think the trainers tell the selions to be gentle.