Killer dolphin missing after Katrina – 09/30/2005

  • November 22, 2013 at 2:41 am #1039
    Mike
    Keymaster

    Hi Guys
    Killer dolphins AOL? Plague infected mice missing and now dolphins
    that can shoot toxic darts?
    We better keep “our ears to the ground” for any swimmers/divers that
    are mysteriously shot with a toxic dart!
    Maybe all the dolphins that were found dead of neurotoxin poison
    were actually shot during training.
    Gosh, I’m surprised the tabloids haven’t had a field-day with this.
    Miss you all in a real-time kind of way.
    Bridget
    http://tinyurl.com/89xhk

    Armed and dangerous – Flipper the firing dolphin let loose by Katrina
    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.
    html
    Mark Townsend in 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 cientists 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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