How Dolphins Protect the U.S. Navy

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cut his harness off and the whale followed a sailboat to hammerfest harbor there he bonded with the locals and was named valdemir a play on the norwegian word for whale vaal and his supposed leader vladimir putin an anonymous source reported that he had indeed escaped from a navy program in mormonts russia but despite the speculation russia denied ownership of him and no one ever claimed him and valdemir has thus remained free and never got in trouble from his comrades for defecting we may never know exactly what this whale was trained to do or what his exact job title was but his discovery shines a light on the long history that marine mammals do have inside the military in russia yes but also in the united states some find the concept amusing some find it troubling but for decades militaries have trained fleets of dolphins whales and sea lions for intricate and sometimes covert operations dolphins in particular have become the watchdog for the us navy over the last few decades protecting military ships and bases from serious harm carrying out tasks that no technology can replicate why are these animals so valuable to the military and why has no man-made technology ever been able to take their place [Music] humans have enlisted animals to help with their military operations for centuries pigeons have been used to carry messages since around 600 bc possibly beginning when the persian king cyrus used them to communicate with distant parts of his empire elephants were first used for war in ancient india around 400 bc trampling and terrifying enemy soldiers horses camels dogs all have been recruited to help in wartime but all of this was done on land it wasn't until the 20th century that militaries began to look to the animal kingdom for help in their underwater operations in the 1960s in the depths of the cold war undersea tactics were becoming more and more important the nuclear submarine had just been revolutionized between 1945 and 1960 and the importance of effective sonar was becoming clear the us was scrambling to stay on top of this technological competition with the soviets and began to look for inspiration in unexpected places thus in 1960 the us began a new kind of covert operation the u.s navy marine mammal program the first research involved hydrodynamic studies on a pacific white-sided dolphin seeking to improve torpedo performance the navy wanted to design better underwater missiles and dolphins seemed like the perfect animal to study to see if they had drag reduction systems that could be replicated they also wanted to study the underwater sonar capabilities of dolphins and whales to learn how to design more efficient methods of detecting objects underwater however soon after beginning these studies scientists realized that these dolphins weren't just well designed they were also trainable adaptable and extremely intelligent a major milestone was the discovery that dolphins could work reliably in the open sea untethered from their human trainers in 1965 a navy dolphin named tuffy participated in the sea lab 2 project carrying tools and messages between the surface and the habitat 60 meters below the surface the true potential of the navy's dolphins was starting to become realized today navy dolphins are primarily trained in one important task to locate underwater objects and with this they have one quality that makes them unbeatable their sonar or echo location as it's called in the dolphin world echolocation allows dolphins to see with sound after the dolphin takes a breath pressure from streams of air bubbles move up the airway from the lungs this causes two flaps called the phonic lips to slap together the clicking vibrations are then transferred to their bulbous forehead aptly called their melon the melon is an organ made up of specialized fats that help sound propagate the clicks are organized into a beam as it travels through the melon the sound is then emitted outwards as a series of high frequency clicks the clicks have peak energy at frequencies ranging from 40 to 130 kilohertz and with levels recorded over 220 decibels decibels underwater are measured slightly differently than an air making this seem extreme but it is still insanely loud sound waves travel through water at a speed of about 1.5 kilometers per second which is about 4.5 times faster than sound traveling through air however high frequency sounds don't travel far in water because of their longer wavelength and greater energy low frequency sounds travel farther but because dolphin clicks are high frequency echo location is most effective at close range once the sound is emitted from the melon and into the environment it bounces off an object and returns as a series of echoes to the dolphin's mandible specialized fatty tissues in the jaw area pick up the sound and auditory nerves conduct it to the middle ear and brain where it creates the picture of the environment for the dolphin man-made sonar works in a similar way but without the fatty forehead tissue to locate a target submarines for example use active and passive sonar active sonar emits pulses of sound waves that travel through the water reflect off the target and return to the ship by knowing the speed of sound and water and the time for the sound wave to travel to the target and back computers can quickly calculate distance between the submarine and the target ships can also use this technology to map the ridges of the ocean floor and get a general understanding of what lies beneath the surface passive sonar emits no signals instead it just listens for sounds coming from external sources but man-made sonar can easily get confused if there are competing noises turbulence in shallow water waves other ships or even your own ship as you are trying to use a sonar system can muddle up the signal this is why man-made sonar is best suited for low frequency and long ranges in the open ocean usually in the sofar channel around one kilometer deep where sound travels best due to the specific combination of the temperature and pressure there this is great for general oceanic surveillance but what if the thing you desperately need to find is in shallow water or buried under mud hidden out of sight [Music] for the navy such a quandary is an ever-present source of anxiety lurking beneath the surface and often beneath the sand are explosive devices placed there to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines they are deposited and sit idle until they are triggered by the approach of or contact with any vessel during the gulf war several navy boats were severely damaged by mines and in many places they are still littered along the ocean floor from conflicts that happened years ago but finding buried targets on the ocean floor is a very big challenge for man-made sonar systems a large portion of a sound signal directed downward strikes the bottom and is reflected or scattered before any sound waves can penetrate the bottom objects in the bottom such as rocks or non-target junk also return echoes using any energy that does manage to penetrate the sea floor it is almost impossible for current man-made sonar systems to distinguish items so small and so often shrouded by mud and so for the us navy this is where the dolphins come in dolphins have spent the last several million years evolving in exactly the type of environment where man-made sonar struggles in shallow sometimes murky and turbulent water even using their ability to hunt for prey that is buried beneath the sand bottlenose dolphins can identify many characteristics of submerged objects including size structure shape and even material composition they can tell the difference between aluminum copper and brass targets or if a target is hollow or solid when a target is covered in neoprene or buried in sand they can discriminate between circles squares and triangles a dolphin's ability to discriminate the size and composition of a target object may be due to the complex structure of the echo and their incredible ability to decipher it after a dolphin sends out its echolocation clicks there is often a primary echo resulting from the main reflection off the surface and a secondary echo due to the smaller vibrations induced within the target the presence of these different echoes produces nulls and peaks in the frequency that the dolphin can understand as differences in the size and composition of the target and these evolved mechanisms and extraordinary abilities are exactly what the navy has harnessed in its mark vii mine clearance system within the u.s military there are five marine mammal teams each trained for a specific type of mission the five teams are called mark four five six seven and eight the mark four seven and eight teams use dolphins mark five uses sea lions and mark six uses both sea lions and dolphins these teams can be deployed at 72 hours notice to conflicts around the world in 2003 during the iraq war the navy sent two dolphins to help with clearing minds in the murky waters of um casa port the dolphins helped clear the way for ships carrying humanitarian aid the water was so opaque that the divers likened the search for minds to crawling around in the mud with your eyes shut but dolphin sonar worked just fine dozens of mines were cleared and the ship's precious cargo of water food medicine and emergency supplies was able to be delivered to the struggling region here's how an operation like this works on the way to a minefield a dolphin will travel by boat with its human handlers protected by a padded folded mat once the group arrives the handlers unfold the mat and the dolphin slides into the water and begins to search for a mine it has been trained to look for suspicious man-made or metal objects when the dolphin thinks it's found one it will swim back up to the boat to poke an appropriate signifier such as a ball with its nose the handlers then give it a marking device like a buoy or a special device known as an acoustic transponder which the animal leaves in the area it spotted the mine the dolphin uses its snout to carry the device down to the object this device either floats or produces a distinct sound that allows human divers to find it later the dolphin is then rewarded with verbal preys and fish dolphins can similarly be trained to detect enemy swimmers and there are rumors that they have also been trained to attack and even kill them during the vietnam war these rumors claimed that dolphins were used in lethal swimmer nullification programs with their beaks fitted with needles to deliver fatal injections of carbon dioxide gas to viet cong divers the navy of course denies this some animal advocates claim that the navy's use of marine mammals is exploitative and immoral with the opinion that any form of captivity for marine mammals is distressing for them akin to a prison but those who work closely with these dolphins see the work as important and essential to the safety of american citizens and the navy insists its dolphins are happy and like what they do and that where they live is not like a prison at all it's more like a classroom where dolphins spend the day working with trainers and vets and at night underwater gates open letting the animals swim and socialize together in larger areas they are cared for like fellow crew members receiving top-notch medical care when they are sick and are generally beloved by their human colleagues it's impossible to know what the dolphins are thinking but we all obviously hope that they are enriched by and enjoy their work but in the end the dolphins do work untethered in the open ocean in the 2003 iraq mission i just mentioned one of the dolphins tacoma disappeared thought to have gone awol and our friend from before valdemir appears to have left his post too did they get lost chasing some local marine life or is it a sign of their unhappiness we may never know but what we do know is that in their service to the us navy they have cleared minds across the world undoubtedly saving countless lives [Music] subjects like this that explore the relationship between militaries and science are something that both me and brian at real engineering like to cover in our videos but do so with some trepidation on youtube unfortunately sometimes certain topics or words like war related things can trigger the algorithm to demonetize our videos even if the video is strictly educational this is why me and several of the top youtube educational content creators have started our own streaming platform called nebula it's a place where we can express ourselves completely freely and openly without worrying about d monetization real engineering series the logistics of d-day is a prime example of the content you can find there the latest episode is about the logistics of refueling 55 000 vehicles in the first week of the invasion of normandy it was a massive challenge that i personally had never considered and is something that was absolutely crucial to the allies success nebula also allows us to take our time producing content and open so many creative doors because of this there is a range of awesome content you can find there long form documentaries by creators like wendover productions originals from creators like polyphonic tom scott or mustard or a new section for original podcasts the showmakers podcast for example is made by brian from real engineering and sam from wendover productions it's a show where they talk to different online creators to learn more about their life and their craft the latest episode features me so if you want to hear the origin story of real science learn about my background and how i started working with brian how i met sam on a semi-disastrous trip in mexico and generally hear brian and sam attempt to host a podcast then this is the podcast for you and to make it even better nebula has partnered with curiosity stream curiosity stream is a streaming platform with thousands of high quality documentaries about things like history space technology or nature like this one called conversations with dolphins which explores whether or not dolphins think the same way we do and if we will ever be able to actually communicate with them so if you sign up for curiosity stream at curiositystream.com real science you'll get a subscription to curiosity stream and a subscription to nebula for now just 14.79 a year 26 off the usual price by signing up you're not just supporting this channel but all of your favorite educational content creators thanks for watching and if you'd like to see more from me the links to my instagram twitter and patreon are below [Music] you

Channel: Real Science

Views: 244,035

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Id: FA1qPdeeJ5s

Length: 17min 21sec (1041 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020