The US Navy Marine Mammal Program Plan

There are five marine mammal teams, each trained for a specific type of mission. Each human-animal team is known in military jargon by a "mark" number (MK for short); the five teams are called "MK 4", "MK 5", "MK 6", "MK 7", and "MK 8". The MK 4, 7 and 8 teams use dolphins; MK 5 uses sea lions, and MK 6 uses both sea lions and dolphins. These teams can be deployed at 72 hours notice by ship, aircraft, helicopter, and land vehicle to regional conflicts or staging areas around the world. Three of the marine mammal teams are trained to clear enemy sea mines, which constitute a major hazard to U.S. Navy ships. MK 4 uses dolphins to detect and mark the location of tethered sea mines floating off the bottom, while MK 7 dolphins are trained to detect and mark the location of mines on the sea floor or buried in sediment. The MK 8 team is trained to swiftly identify safe corridors for the initial landing of troops ashore. MK 5 is dedicated to the recovery of test equipment that is fired from ships or dropped from planes into the ocean and MK 6 uses dolphins and sea lions as sentries to protect harbor installations and ships against unauthorized human swimmers. In operation, a dolphin awaits a cue from its handler before starting to search a specific area using its natural echolocation. The dolphin reports back to its handler, giving particular responses to communicate whether a target object is detected. If a mine-like target is detected, the handler sends the dolphin to mark the location of the object so it can be avoided by Navy vessels or neutralized by Navy divers. Today, Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions are the main animals used, and are kept at the base in San Diego. Dolphins have powerful biological sonar, unmatched by artificial sonar technology in detecting objects in the water column and on the sea floor. Sea lions lack this, but have very sensitive underwater directional hearing and exceptional vision in low-light conditions. Both of these species are trainable and capable of repetitive deep diving. As of the late 1990s, about 140 marine mammals were part of the program.

(During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, there were media reports that some of the Navy's dolphins, equipped with poison dart guns and trained to attack hostile swimmers in the water, escaped when their containment area in Lake Pontchartrain was breached, posing a threat to swimmers. However, the Navy reported that all of its dolphins were accounted for, and that its only dolphin training centre is in San Diego, far from the area affected by Katrina. During the hurricane, some dolphins did escape from the Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport, Mississippi, and were subsequently recovered.)

Those crazy medias.