US Navy Marine Mammal Program
Did you know that right here in San Diego dolphins and sea lions are being trained for specific types of missions? How awesome is that? The US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions dating back to the late 1950’s.
Bottle nose dolphins and California sea lions are the main animals used in these training. They are are kept at the base in San Diego. Dolphins have powerful biological sonar 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. 
Some of the missions they are being trained for include:
- Mine Hunting
- Mines are a major hazard to U.S. Navy. Dolphins are being trained to detect and mark the location of tethered sea mines floating off the bottom of the sea or buried in sediment. Some dolphins are even trained to identify safe corridors for the initial landing of troops ashore. Dolphins were used in the Iraq War to perform mine clearance in the Persian Gulf. Amazing, right?
- Force Protection
- Dolphins and sea lions are used as guards to protect harbor installations and ships against unauthorized human swimmer The animals depend on their superior underwater senses and swimming ability to defend against counterattacks.
- Object Recovery
- Sea lions are trained specifically for the recovery of test equipment that is fired from ships or dropped from planes into the ocean. They locate and attach recovery hardware to underwater objects.
