{"id":3313,"date":"2024-04-16T09:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T09:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/03\/11\/inside-the-navys-marine-mammal-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:50:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:50:33","slug":"inside-the-navys-marine-mammal-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2024\/04\/16\/inside-the-navys-marine-mammal-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Navy\u2019s Marine Mammal Program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SAN DIEGO \u2013 In 1959, the Navy stood up its Marine Mammal program here. With one dolphin, researchers set out to study how fast the creatures could swim, in an effort to improve ship and torpedo performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty-five years later, the program has roughly 120 sea animals that are trained to detect mines and other underwater hazards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the program also stands at the forefront of research into dolphin bio-sonar and best veterinary care practices for the creatures, Dr. Mark Xitco, the program\u2019s director, told Navy Times during a visit to the dolphin enclosure at Naval Base Point Loma in February.<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/atype-video-jwplayer>
A look at the Navy\u2019s Marine Mammal Program, now in its 65th year of training dolphins and other animals to perform underwater tasks, and study their behavior.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Recently, the program has also taught sea lions how to play video games, part of an effort to better understand cognitive enrichment within the creatures. The voluntary gaming sessions come with plenty of herring rewards for a job well done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A California sea lion uses his snout to play a game in 2023 that Navy scientists created as part of their research on cognitive enrichment for marine mammals. (Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On a sunny morning, dolphins swam about and occasionally scampered and jumped into the air as a team of handlers fed and worked with the animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program\u2019s scientific side was showcased in a 2023 New York Times report<\/a> exploring the program\u2019s work on the science of dolphin aging, told through the lens of Blue, a 57-year-old Navy dolphin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when it comes to operations, Xitco said the program trains Navy animals \u201cto do simple things under extraordinary circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor them, detecting enemy divers and swimmers or (underwater drones) or enemy mines, finding the target is easy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe animals are natural hunters, we just change what they\u2019re hunting for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marine Mammal Program is largely recognized for advances in the field of marine biology, according to Jim Dines, a biological sciences professor at California State University Long Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Sam Ridgway, a former leader of the program, is largely considered to be \u201ca founding father of marine mammal medicine,\u201d Dines said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the same time, the marine mammal research community has mixed feelings about keeping dolphins and sea lions in captivity, and some have even stronger feelings about using these marine mammals in service of the military\u2019s mission,\u201d Dines said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dines likened the different perspectives to how the research community feels about marine parks and aquaria that also keep mammals in captivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a recognition of the value in the research, education, and rescue\/rehabilitation that most of the marine parks are engaged in, and simultaneously be uncomfortable to infuriated that intelligent animals are held in captivity for human entertainment and for profit by the corporations operating these parks,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthere is wide variation in personal views\u201d on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xitco said the animals receive the highest quality of care, and that that care is mandated by a Navy Secretary-level instruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNot high care, pretty good care within budget,\u201d he said. \u201cHighest quality care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy\u2019s Marine Mammal Program is the second-largest holder of marine mammals in the United States, after Sea World, Xitco said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe never put any Navy animal in any harm\u2019s way any more than our personnel,\u201d Xitco added. \u201cWe go together, and it\u2019s a tough job that we\u2019re doing, but we don\u2019t do anything on the backs of the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A Navy dolphin wearing a tracking device performs mine clearance work in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq war in 2003. (DOD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Each dolphin has a primary and secondary handler, part of a team of roughly 200 personnel looking out for their wellbeing, as well as nearly 20 veterinarians on standby should the handlers notice anything off about their animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Navy has led the way in the marine mammal field when it comes to dolphin wellness, Xitco said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll of our animals are trained to participate in their own health care, they sit still and let us look at every orifice and body part, and the Navy invented that,\u201d he said. \u201cBack in the 60s, we were the first ones to train a dolphin to voluntarily give a blood sample \u2026 and then we sort of spread that philosophy throughout the marine mammal community, and then marine mammal trainers spread it to throughout the zoological community and even into our domestic pets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xitco said one of the most challenging parts of the program involves getting dolphins comfortable out of the water when being transported in trucks, ships, airplanes or by helicopter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such training can\u2019t be rushed along on any human timetable, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way we can rush it, because at the end of everything we do, we release the animals and rely on them to be cooperative partners with us out in the ocean,\u201d Xitco said. \u201cSo if they weren\u2019t comfortable and confident in what they do with us \u2026 they would just leave and not come back, and they almost never do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientists here study the dolphins\u2019 biological sonar array, a system that man has yet to replicate to its fullest potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program also studies the hearing system of these creatures, to better understand the potential impacts of Navy operations on wild marine animals, Xitco said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, Xitco and the program\u2019s leaders are working toward a day when they will no longer need their marine mammal comrades for missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to replace our marine mammals and our marine mammal systems as soon as technology is available to do that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already, dolphins have been phased out of one mission that involved hunting for bottom or moored mines in shallow waters and under favorable conditions, a mission now undertaken by Navy drones, according to Xitco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo obstacles, no restricted waterways, no kelp, no rock, the vehicles under those favorable conditions are superior to the dolphins because of their onboard sensors,\u201d he said. \u201cVehicles never get tired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, running unmanned systems effectively underwater is much more challenging than fielding airborne drones, Xitco said, and he doesn\u2019t expect the Navy\u2019s dolphins to be retired anytime soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much about how we communicate and navigate in the air that\u2019s so much easier than doing underwater, where our communication signals don\u2019t have the range and there\u2019s a lot more obstacles,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are jobs the animals do that we don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to be replaced for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a recent visit, Dr. Jim Finneran explained how scientists continue to study the dolphin\u2019s bio-sonar abilities, and how their internal systems make them so effective at finding objects in the water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDolphins emit pulses of sound, we call them clicks,\u201d Finneran explained. \u201cClicks travel through the underwater environment and reflect off of underwater objects to create echoes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tuffy the dolphin gets trained in recovering an acoustic device in 1965. (Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Those echoes come back toward the dolphin, and they can determine the distance to a target by the time delay between the click and the echo, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then from the kind of fine details of the echo, they can determine things like the shape of the object, the material composition,\u201d Finneran added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finneran\u2019s current work involves using a sort of virtual reality array, where researchers \u201cplace\u201d an object underwater for a dolphin to click off of, except there\u2019s not an actual object there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s emitting his echolocation pulses, but there\u2019s no physical target out there,\u201d he said. \u201cInstead, we have an underwater microphone called a hydrophone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That hydrophone takes the dolphin\u2019s click pulse and manipulates it to create a waveform that is then broadcast back to the dolphin, allowing scientists to test their detection ability more easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bond between the trainers and their dolphins is apparent when visiting Point Loma, but Xitco notes that \u201cthey are still wild animals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDogs are domesticated animals that we created over thousands of years to read our minds and just love us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve never had a Navy dolphin or sea lion want to put their head in my lap and make an evening out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Navy program that trains dolphins and sea lions for a variety of missions turns 65 this 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