Sea Lions Help U.S. Navy Handcuff Enemy Divers and Sweep Mines

What you gonna do when the sea lions come for you?

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 11.25.2009 at 2:58 pm 5 Comments

Sea Lion Diver: This mine stands no chance against Navy-trained sea lions BARCROFT

Californian sea lions have become U.S. Navy recruits alongside dolphins and human divers, as seen in this amazing picture. The Daily Telegraph reports that this particular fellow put on a display for officials at the NATO Underwater Research Center in La Spezia Bay, Italy.

The sea lion demonstrated his minesweeping skills by swimming down to a fake mine and putting a clamp onto the device, so that handlers from the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific could reel it in. The sea lion has also learned to attach leg cuffs to enemy divers, immobilizing them and allowing human sailors on the surface to pull in the intruders. A special sea lion harness can also carry cameras that provide live underwater video.

The U.S. Navy has now begun using its sea lions to patrol for terrorists or other underwater saboteurs at a base in Washington State.

The fine Navy tradition involving sea mammals also includes using dolphins to mark underwater mines during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Daily Telegraph notes that the Navy's ranks now include 28 California sea lions, 80 Atlantic and Pacific bottlenose dolphins, and a Beluga whale.

Now Hollywood just needs to add sea lions, dolphins and Navy lasers to a revised underwater fight scene ala Thunderball, and it has the next Bond film's climactic piece.

[via The Daily Telegraph]

Previous Article: Superconducting Magnetic Heat Shield Could Protect Spacecraft During Reentry

Next Article: Smart Armor Knows Its Own Strength, As Well As The Enemy's

5 Comments

Link to this comment

brainsnbrawn

11/25/09 at 10:26 pm

O.K. i know i have to waight a few years before we have to compete with robots for jobs, but seals!

that's just way too much.

Link to this comment

I_Wonder...

11/26/09 at 10:20 am

I'd love to know what the beluga whale's job is.

Link to this comment

animemaster

11/28/09 at 1:43 am

Will they train narwhals to stab enemy divers?

Link to this comment

skillet

11/28/09 at 12:06 pm

I've read before that they also train dolphins to do certain tasks. Like...place explosives on ships.

Link to this comment

Dane619

11/28/09 at 2:22 pm

waight? you mean wait..... right?

Popular Tags

Technology

All Tags All Photos All Videos

Technology

+ More Photo Galleries

June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.