MANAMA, Bahrain - The U.S. Navy has deployed highly trained dolphins to the region to help protect U.S. and coalition ships and piers against terrorist attacks by providing early warning of hostile swimmers.
"If there are any uninvited guests — swimmers and divers — trying to cause harm to U.S. and coalition naval assets, the dolphins can detect and locate them," said Lt. Josh Frey, a spokesman of the 5th Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, on Monday.
Citing security reasons, Lt. Cmdr. Martin Anderson declined to divulge how many dolphins have been brought in, when they were deployed and why they were brought to the region now. ..
"They are trained to look out (for us) and they do very well at it," said Anderson as a 400-pound dolphin named Luke made a brief appearance at Bahrain's Mina Salman port swimming alongside a Navy patrol boat.
After a brief surveillance, the 29-year-old, 9-foot-long dolphin stood on its tail to receive a fish — his reward — that a Navy handler on the patrol boat threw in his direction.
More here