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

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]

5 Comments

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.

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

Will they train narwhals to stab enemy divers?

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

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



Download Our iPhone App

Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing



Grab the Tech Buyer's Guide iPhone App

Carry everything you need to make a smart buy on HDTVs, cameras and 14 other product categories right in your pocket



Follow Us On Twitter

Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed



Become a Fan On Facebook

Share links with friends, comment on stories and more


February 2010: Renovating America

Innovative fixes for five of the country's biggest infrastructure messes, plus a look the quest to read the human mind, the LCD screen that might finally kill paper dead, and the world's scariest science.

Read the issue here.

Popular Science Photo Pool


Share your photos in the Pop Sci pool at www.flickr.com!