Introduction
Animals
Training
Fleet Systems
Mine Hunting
Force Protection
Object Recovery
Fleet Support
Deployments
Marine Mammal Health Care
Research Programs
NMMP FAQs
Calendar Wallpaper
Internship Program
In The News
Organizational Chart
Annotated Bibliography
The development, training, veterinary care, and research facility that supports today's Navy Marine Mammal Program is centered in the Biosciences Division of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego). However, the Navy's work with marine mammals has been going on for many years. It got its start in the late 1950s when the Navy began to study the unique attributes of marine mammals such as the hydrodynamics of the dolphin. By understanding how dolphins move in the water, perhaps the Navy could improve torpedo, ship, and submarine designs. Soon the Navy realized that dolphins would be valuable assistants to Navy divers working in the open ocean. Unlike human divers, dolphins are capable of making repeated deep dives without experiencing the bends or decompression sickness. They also found that dolphins and sea lions are highly reliable, adaptable, and trainable marine animals that could be conditioned to search for, detect, and mark the location of objects in the water.
 Aerial view of the NMMP facilities at
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Dolphin assisting diver in open ocean |
In the early days of the program, various marine mammal species were considered including: killer whales, pilot whales, belugas (white whales), Steller sea lions, grey seals, and fur seals. Other animals were used in various studies pertaining to locating personnel from downed aircraft and creating effective shark deterrents to protect them until they could be rescued. As the animals were assessed for their capabilities, much about their basic biology was learned.
Cetaceans
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Pinnipeds
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Other |
Today, bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions perform a number of important functions such as protecting ports and Navy assets from swimmer attack, locating and attaching recovery hardware to expensive exercise and training targets, and locating potentially dangerous sea mines.
