Navy May Send Dolphins to Puget Sound

The U.S. Navy wants to use its trained dolphins and sea lions to guard the country’s biggest stash of nuclear weapons, patrolling the waters of Puget Sound.

The animals would counter threats from surface and submerged swimmers around the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base near Seattle, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. The dolphins and sea lions have been trained at Point Loma in San Diego.

In 1989, a judge agreed with animal rights activists who argued that marine mammals used to the warm waters of San Diego Harbor should not be deployed in Puget Sound, where the temperature is about 10 degrees lower. Tom Lapuzza, spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program, said that the Navy has recently trained animals in Alaska and Scandinavia and found they can endure the cold water.

Under the plan, the dolphins and sea lions would be on patrol for two hours at a time before returning to a heated enclosure.

A final decision is expected in about 18 months.