Did Katrina Free Firing Flippers?

In 1989 the U.S. Navy launched a classified research program in San Diego called Cetacean Intelligence Mission. The purpose of the project was to train Atlantic bottlenose dolphins to be used for military purposes by fitting them with harnesses and small electrodes implanted under their skin. The dolphins were then taught to patrol and protect Trident submarines in harbors, as well as stationary warships at sea. The harnesses strapped to the dolphins could be equipped with toxic dart guns, so that the creatures could be taught to shoot terrorists attacking military seagoing vessels. Animal rights groups were quick to criticize the use of dolphins as potential weapons, so news and information about military projects became increasingly secretive. However, the project took on more importance after the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, and dolphins were also used to detect mines near a port in Iraq.

According to Leo Sheridan, an accident investigator who has worked for the United States government, recent intelligence reports from sources close to the government’s marine fisheries service has indicated that as many as 36 trained dolphins escaped from the military when their coastal compound was breached during Hurricane Katrina, and they were swept out into open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. A trained dolphin is usually controlled by transmitting signals to its harness, but the dolphin is trained to seek out and pinpoint possible treats and attack if necessary. As part of their training, dolphins are taught to shoot at divers in wetsuits who simulate terrorists in training exercises. So, according to Sheridan, if any trained dolphins were accidentally freed by the storm while wearing loaded harnesses, they could conceivably cause harm to divers and surfers if they perceive them to be a threat.

Sheridan’s alarming suppositions seem to have surfaced when a different group of dolphins turned up missing from a commercial oceanarium on the Mississippi coast that was breached during the high tides and storm surges delivered by Hurricane Katrina. Eight of those dolphins were found with the help of the United States Navy, but the dolphins were not returned to their commercial owners until after Navy scientists had examined them. That fact makes Sheridan believe that the Navy did indeed lose some of its trained dolphins, which are supposedly kept in training ponds in a Louisiana sound close to Lake Pontchartrain. And of course Lake Pontchartrain was a major source of the floodwaters that devastated New Orleans. The U.S. Navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm or deny that any are missing. But although there is no evidence to support or discount Sheridan’s wild postulations, it seems highly unlikely that the military would equip trained dolphins with toxic darts just as a dangerous hurricane is forecast to hit the area where they are housed. That would indeed be a fish tale to beat all fish tales.