From: BIOHZD@aol.com Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 9:58 PM To: blue_planet@lists.imagiconline.com Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Sea Soldiers Hey All, Just an interesting FYI... I was channel surfing and caught the last 45 minutes of a special on the Animal Planet Network. It was an expose' of sorts about the US Navy's Marine Mammal Reseach Program. Though obviously produced with sympathy for the animals the show seemed mostly fair and was quite informative. Networks like that endlessly repeat their programming and I would recommend catching it if you can. Anyway, I learned some interesting stuff that is at least thematically relevant to BP. --The navy was training dolphins to search out mines and locate underwater objects, etc. as early as WWII. --Dophins and sealions have been trained to patrol harbors, and attack intruders with harness mounted, contact discharged firearms. --Dolphins used snout-mounted CO2 gas charges to literally "blow up" four VC divers during the Vietnam war - the first successful dolphin attack. --In the early 70's, dolphins were used to take recon photos of Soviet navy vessels in Cuban harbors. --A dophin successfully attached an acustical monitor to the hull of a Soviet submarine. --Sealions, beluga and pilot whales have all been trained as part of the program. Sealions were prefered for their ability to move on land, ease of transport, and ability to stay out of the water for long periods of time. Pilots were used for deep water applications and beluga were used in polar waters. --Dozens if not hundreds of "sea-soldiers" (officially designated by numbers, not names) were killed or injured in training execises. --Dolphins were used in the Gulf War to locate mines and in an attempt to patrol during navy diving operations. The patrol work was an abject failure. --In training, dolphins have been know to actually lie on purpose, and to sink their own support boats rather than the targets. --Some of the dolphins that served in the Gulf were supposedly Vietnam veterans. I find that hard to believe, but that is what the show said. --The Soviets had a similar program, and before the economic collapse, Soviet researchers supposedly came up with a device that accurately mimmicked the dolphin range of sounds. The felt this was an important step to communication. -- The US program was decommissioned in '96, but the bases in San Diego and Hawaii are still active. They are trying, unseccessfully so far, to return the animals to the wild. --Because the bases and training have always been in plain sight, and many think it is ludicrous to trust playful, unpredictable animals to do the things they were doing, many authorities think the program was just a big bluff - a gamble to keep the Soviets guessing. Well, interesting if nothing else. Jeff Barber Biohazard Games *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message. From: Stephen Mutka [dreadmook@netzero.net] Sent: Saturday, February 12, 2000 4:08 PM To: Blue Planet List Subject: [BLUE PLANET] - Lambda Serpentis Hey folks, The other day I was looking over a star map from a National Geographic, trying to look up our favorite star system just for fun. I couldn't find it anywhere. Is Lambda Serpentis invented, or is it one of the millions of unnamed stars, or did I just miss it? Just curious, Steve -- "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde __________________________________________ NetZero - Defenders of the Free World Get your FREE Internet Access and Email at http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html *************************************************************************** To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@lists.imagiconline.com with the line 'unsubscribe blue_planet' as the body of the message.