U.S. Navy Seal? No, it's a sea lion and he took less than a minute to find a mine (and even LEG-CUFFED a pretend saboteur)

By Mail Foreign Service

One of the highly trained sea lions set off with the 'cuffing' device in its mouth to snare a pretend saboteur in San Francisco harbour


He is one of the elite of the American fighting forces and trained to the limits by the U.S. Navy. But he's not a Navy Seal, he's actually a sea lion.

He was being put through his paces along with the team from the Navy Marine Mammals squad, based in San Diego, in a day of anti-terrorism training exercises held at ports throughout California.

And he took less than a minute to find a fake mine under a pier while a fellow recruit, a dolphin, quickly located a terrorist lurking in the black water. Then another sea lion, using a device carried in its mouth, cuffed the pretend saboteur's ankle so authorities could reel him in.

It was all part of California's annual, two-day homeland security and disaster preparedness exercises started by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2004.

The drills include a fake attack on a container ship at the Port of Oakland, a bomb explosion at the Port of Redwood City, and terrorist attacks in waters off Los Angeles, Long Beach, Sacramento and San Diego.

California is home to 11 ports that handle 60 percent of the nation's container shipping traffic, said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Navy Marine Mammals programme.


The sea lion jumps onto a U.S. Navy patrol boat to receive fresh instructions from his instructors
'Security is of vital importance,' he said.


'Humans are very slow in the water. Sea lions can see five times as well. And dolphins can use their sonar to spot items that would take humans days or weeks to find.

'We have trained sea lions to attach a leg cuff, just like hand cuffs, but fitted on a diver's thigh. The device works in the same way as handcuffs. Once they are on, they cannot come off.

'A line is attached to the cuffs and the other end is held by security forces on a nearby boat. The human forces can then reel in the intruder and take him or her aboard for questioning.'


One of the dolphins in the Navy Marine Mammals programme jumps onto a boat during training


Other Nato members are considering enlisting the animals, which the US is using in Washington State to patrol for terrorists as part of a drive launched after the 9/11 attacks.

During training the sea lions are also conditioned to recognise various shapes of water mines.

The animals can be fitted with a special harness attached to a lead, which allows trainers to keep track of them while they are hunting for underwater objects.

Cameras can be fitted to the harness giving military staff live video images from under the surface.


San Francisco police officers reel in suspected terrorist divers after they were tracked and 'cuffed' by the sea lions


Officials use a sea lion in a training to detect a mine attached to a pier in San Francisco


The marine mammal program is several decades old. LaPuzza said dolphins and sea lions were used during the Vietnam War and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

None of the animals have been harmed in the anti-terrorist work and they never have to carry livemines.

Instead, they find the devices and place markers on them before Navy divers retrieve and defuse the devices.


A diver shows shows the fake mine used in the anti-terrorism training exercise


source: dailymail