OPINION

I The Michigan Daily

Tuesday, June 4, 1985 Page 5
Navy's animal arsenal

Vol. XCV, No. 11-S
95 Years of Editorial Freedom
Managed and Edited by Students at
The University of Michigan
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the
Daily Editorial Board
Legal murder
F or the past 139 years, the people of Michigan have said
no to the death penalty. But the Senate Judiciary
Committee last week approved a resolution to reinstate it
in Michigan.
The Michigan Constitution now reads that "no law shall
be enacted providing for the penalty of death." The com-
mittee's resolution would allow the legislature to enact a
law calling for the death penalty in cases of first-degree
murder.
To change the constitution, the Senate must approve the
resolution by a two-thirds majority. It then would go to the
House for similar approval. The resolution would be placed
on the November 1986 ballot for voter approval.
Unquestionably, the current penal system needs reform.
Criminals cannot always be completely rehabilitated.
Violence within prison occurs with astounding frequency,
and often continues after parole. Perhaps, some criminals
within the system can't be rehabilitated at all.
The death penalty may seem like a viable solution to this
problem. It assures that unreformed murderers will not be
unwittingly unleashed on society.
But the death penalty is not a solution to a bad prison
system and an unfair judicial process. No judge or jury
should be granted the power to decide that another person
is hopeless and doesn't deserve to live. If murder is wrong,
it is wrong for everybody.
Legalizing the death penalty sets a standard that per-
meates society with violence. The government is represen-
tative of the people and as such, can not be given the power
to take the life of any of its members.
Violence can not be encouraged and certainly should not
be a tool for stopping violence. The legalization of the
death penalty promotes violent action and sets an example
of destruction.
Constructive actions, such as prison expansion and
reform, support of educators and social workers are time-
consuming and costly, but they are the only an-
swer.
The Senate must reject this violent and repugnant
resolution and take a compassionate and constructive look
r at the problems associated with violent crime and
criminal reform.
Letters to the Daily should be typed,
triple-spaced, and signed by the in-
dividual authors. Names will be withheld
only in unusual circumstances. Letters
may be edited for clarity, grammar, and
spelling.

By David Helvarg
SAN DIEGO-One multi-million dollar "pet project"
that has escaped the scrutiny of would-be defense budget-
cutters is the Navy's growing arsenal of marine mam-
mals which now includes five Beluga whales, eleven sea
lions and 57 dolphins.
They are the latest subjects of an ongoing program by
the Navy to test military uses for marine mammals.
Though much of that effort is shrouded in secrecy,
evidence shows that over the last 25 years the animals
have been trained to guard installations, salvage sunken
objects and, some say, to kill humans.
As part of Project Quick Find, the one current marine
"biosystems" program not classified by the Navy, sea
lions equipped with mechanical "nose grabbers" dive to
the ocean bottom and use the device to attach recovery
lines to practice torpedos and missiles during fleet
training exercises.
The Navy also continues to openly pursue its long-time
interest in dolphins' echo-locating abilities. "The dolphin
has the best short-range, high resolution sonar in the
world. It's only natural the Navy would want to study it,"
says Bill Evans, director of the Hubbs-Sea World Resear-
ch Institute in San Diego and formerly one of the Navy's
chief marine scientists.
BUT IT IS THE top-secret Navy programs which invite
the most conjecture and controversy.
Earl Murchison, a prominent behavioral scientist in
Hawaii, says he ended his 15-year role in the Navy's
dolphin program in 1982 "because I don't like the way the
research has become so engineering-dominated. They
talk about the animals as if they were machines."
A classified 1983 budget memorandum from the office of
the Chief of Naval Operations, first reported by Jack An-
derson, called for the expansion of the Navy's marine
mammal program to the Atlantic coast. Dolphins, trained
to detect intruders and then trip an alarm system, will be
used there to strengthen fleet security against terrorist at-
tack, according to Anderson's Congressional sources.
Earl Murchison in Hawaii, and several scientific and
military sources in San Diego, confirm the Navy's
ongoing use of dolphins for guard duty at military in-
stallations. Dolphins have been based in and around Pearl
Harbor, San Diego harer and Suic Bay in the Philip-
pines, the Navy's three largest Pacific ports.
There are statements on record that dolphins have per-
formed much more dangerous and violent missions in the
past. In 1978 Michael Greenwood, a ten-year veteran of
Navy and CIA marine mammal programs, testified
before the Senate Intelligence Committee that dolphins
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based in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, were trained to kill
enemy frogmen.
Greenwood said that under this "Swimmer
Nullification" program dolphins were outfitted with pad-
ded beak cones containing hollow point hypodermic
needles attached to CO-2 cartridges, a weapon originally
developed by the Navy to kill sharks. When injected, the
needle is designed to fire CO-2 gas into the body which ex-
plodes from the inside.
James Fitzgerald, the former chief of the CIA's Office
of Dolphin Research, later confirmed that dolphins
"blew up" a number of enemy divers.
Dolphins were also used in Vietnam to plant and detect
explosive mines, a former Navy SEAL (Sea Air and Land)
commando has revealed for the first time.
"The three dolphins I worked with...were quite effective
in attaching light mines to enemy wharves and piers,"
recalls Ken Woodal, the former SEAL commando who
now lives in Alma, Arkansas. The animals were transpor-
ted by plane and boat on a number of top secret missions
with Woodal's SEAL team during 1971, he says. The
dolphins were never sacrificed kamikaze fashion, accor-
ding to Woodal. Instead, they were trained to detach from
a mine after planting it and then swim to safety.
"AFTER FIFTEEN YEARS," states Woodal, "the
thing that still sticks with me is the intelligence of those
water mammals."
The Navy acknowledges using dolphins in Vietnam, but
prefers not to talk about it. "That was a long time ago,"
says Naval Ocean Systems Center spokesman Joel
Merriweather. "Besides, we'd really like to keep a low
profile on our marine mammal work.' But because the
Navy spends millions on the largest marine mammal
research program in the United States, keeping a low
profile is not easy.
The Navy has employed or provided research grants to
almost every major scientist studying marine mammals.
It has worked closely with a number of universities and
ocean theme parks including San Diego's Sea World.
Since 1972, when the Marine Mammal Protection Act
began requiring reports on its practices, the Navy has
acknowledged the capture, breeding and training of more
than 200 animals including 120 dolphins, 10 whales, 75
seals and sea lions. Of these, 39 dolphins, 21 seals and one
whale have died from accidents or diseases while in the
Navy's care.
Helvarg, a San Diego based freelance writer, has
reported extensively on the Navy and ocean science
for Pacific News Service.
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