Russia hasn't just annexed Crimea, but has also taken away Ukraine's impressive Dolphin Fleet comprising of a highly trained squad, which can detect mines and 'kill enemies'. The flippers are all set to raise their fins in support of Russia.
The takeover of the Flipper fleet is expected to help divers from the Russian Emergencies Ministry find explosives and even attack frogmen- scuba divers that are trained to slip past security.
An employee at the Sevastopol Oceanarium, a center of the mammal training program, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that their combat dolphin program will be "preserved and redirected towards the interests of the Russian Navy."
The dolphin program was given to the Ukrainian navy after the breakup of the USSR. About ten adorable, killer dolphins were on active duty to defend Ukrainian ships, according to media reports. The mammals apparently fought using knives attached to their heads.
Ukraine might not miss the flipper fleet. A source in the Ukrainian Navy told RIA Novosti in February that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry had decided to stop using the dolphins as an underwater killing squad. Now, it looks like the Russian Army will not only save, but also revive the program.
Russia and Ukraine aren't the only countries to use these adorable animals as weapons. It is believed that the United States used these adorable creatures during the Vietnam War and in the Persian Gulf. According to a report by PBS, dolphins, beluga whales and sea lions were trained to perform underwater tasks such as locating objects, retrieving equipment and, guarding boats.
There is a U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program that is training bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) along with two white whales or belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) to serve in the Navy. These mammals help the military to detect mines in deep, murky waters. NMMP says that it doesn't use dolphins as offensive weapons.
Ukrainian killer dolphins were in the headlines last year after three flippers "allegedly" escaped the Naval training program to find love. RIA Novosti, which seems to have kept a tab on these mammals for a long time, later reported that the Ukraine's Defense Ministry denied the story and called it a hoax.
The day is not far when as Adam Douglas wrote the Dolphins Someday It seems plausible that someday when the earth is being destroyed to make a hyperspace bypass, the dolphins will leave the planet, saying," Good bye and thanks for all the fish!."
Douglas Adams, who wrote 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' might have been right about dolphins after all.
The day is not far away when aliens destroy earth to make a hyperspace bypass and the dolphins leave earth, saying," Good bye and thanks for all the fish!."