Satellite images show Russia deploying trained dolphins at the entrance to a key Black Sea port in a move that may be designed to help protect a major Kremlin naval base there, according to a naval analyst. The images, provided to the Washington Post by Maxar Technologies, show two dolphin pens at the entrance to the Crimean port of Sevastopol – which Russian forces annexed from Ukraine in 2014. HI Sutton, a submarine analyst who reported on the dolphins for the U.S. Naval Institute on Wednesday, said the pens were moved there in February, roughly at the time of the invasion of Ukraine. He said the dolphins could be used to deal with special Ukrainian divers trying to enter the port to sabotage Russian warships – a role he said the United States and Russia have trained marine mammals in the past. In an email to The Post, a Maxar Technologies spokesman agreed with Sutton’s analysis and explanation for the dolphin pens recently recorded by their satellites. Some Russian warships are based in the port of Sevastopol, outside the range of Ukrainian missiles. The warship Moskva – the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet – sank this month after being hit by two Ukrainian missiles, causing a major blow to Russia’s naval capability, US and Ukrainian officials said. Since the 1960s, the U.S. Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions to help protect against underwater threats. According to marine experts, dolphins have the most advanced sonar known in science, making them relatively easy to detect mines and other potentially dangerous ocean floor objects that are difficult to detect with electronic sonar. The U.S. Navy-based Marine Mammal Training Program, based in San Diego, was declassified in the 1990s. from the 1973 science fiction film “The Day of the Dolphin” in which a scientist trains dolphins to communicate with humans. . In the film, the dolphins were abducted in an attempt to use them as part of a political assassination. Russia reportedly used the Sevastopol base during the Soviet era to train dolphins for military purposes, such as placing explosives on ships or searching for mines. Whether they were ever developed for military operations is debatable. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Sevastopol facility was used by Ukraine to train dolphins for therapeutic sessions. Russia resumed training of marine mammals after taking control of the port city in 2014, the Moscow Times reported at the time. In 2019, a white whale appeared in Norway wearing a leash – prompting local marine experts to speculate that they would encounter a mammal that was part of a Russian naval training program, according to media reports. The whale was named “Hvaldimir” by the locals – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Paulina Villegas contributed to this report.
