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National Geographic : 1979 Apr
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DAVIDDOUBILET(ABOVEANDUPPERLEFT)ANDNAVALOCEANSYSTEMSCENTER,KANEOHE,HAWAII Run silent, run deep? But how deep? Scientists at the Naval Ocean Systems Center in Hawaii seek an answer. Eager to work, Lii, a Pacific bottlenose dolphin, willingly accompanies a boat to a test site in the open sea (above). As a first step, trainers suspend a pinging pressure sensor from the boat and teach the dolphin to lo cate it and butt a switch on its end. That stops the pinging, signaling "mission ac complished" to those on board; it also trig gers a camera and a strobe mounted on a bracket above the sensor. Lii learns the trick at a depth of 50 feet (above, left). Down, down, down goes the sensor, week after week, with Lii right behind. Like a phantom at 1,550 feet, Lii takes his own picture (left). Tremendous pressure has collapsed his flexible rib cage, an attribute that probably prevents the bends, a danger for human divers. Are dolphins being turned into secret weapons? The Navy scoffs at allegations of "kamikaze porpoises" trained to carry ex plosives and blow up enemy submarines, but admits it tested their surveillance and detection abilities in Viet Nam's Cam Ranh Bay in the early 1970's. The Trouble With Dolphins 535
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