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Flipper, find the mine! Canadian military trained with bomb-detecting dolphins off B.C. coast, documents show
Canadian soldiers got an up-close look at bomb-detecting dolphins during a military training exercise with the Americans off the coast of British Columbia, a newly released document shows.
The U.S. navy brought four bottlenose dolphins and a small support team to Esquimalt, B.C., last year to practise anti-mine tactics as part of Exercise Trident Fury. The large-scale training operation took place in May 2011 and involved the armed forces and coast guards of Canada and the United States.
A briefing note to the chief of maritime staff described the exercise as a rare opportunity for the Canadian military to gain valuable experience working with the animals — something it currently does not do. (Photo: U.S. Navy/Getty Images)
Dolphins deserve rights, scientists told
Dolphins and whales should be considered non-human “persons” with basic rights such as life, liberty and well-being, the world’s largest science conference heard in Vancouver.
“Science has shown us that cetaceans have most, if not all, the characteristics that humans have, including intelligence, self-awareness, autonomy and social complexity,” said Lori Marino, one of four scientists who presented the Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans: Whales and Dolphins at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting on the weekend. “Their basic needs are very much like humans — to be able to stay alive, to not be confined, to make choices and travel, and perhaps foremost to engage in social interaction.” (Photos: AFP/Getty Images)
18 critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins spotted by WWF
Conservation group WWF said it spotted 18 critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in Indonesian waters off Borneo island Tuesday and called for greater protection of the species’ habitat.
There is little data on the Irrawaddy dolphin — which resembles the common bottlenose dolphin but has no beak and a snub dorsal fin — and no comprehensive survey has been conducted to measure its global population.
“In the past, locals and fishermen reported seeing the dolphins, but we have never recorded them until now,” WWF conservation biologist Albertus Tjiu told AFP. (Photo: David Dove/WWF Greater Mekong/AFP/Getty Images)
