Russia to use marine mammals in anti-terrorist operations: Expert

Moscow, May 6 (UNI) Russia plans to use marine mammals in anti-terrorist operations and for protecting its strategic coastal installations, an expert said today.

'' The use of marine mammals is a very promising aspect of programmes to enhance the protection of coastal installations from terror attacks and in monitoring the underwater situation,'' Director of the Murmansk Marine Biology Institute Gennady Matishov told Interfax news agency today.

''Marine animals possess a unique ability to locate underwater biological and technical objects in the environment of natural and artificial noises and in conditions of complex seabed features,'' Mr Matishov said.

He said his institute had been studying the use of marine animals in the Northern Fleet since 1984.

The Academician said animals were being kept and research infrastructure was deployed in an area which links up with the Saida Bay in the tide period. An enclosure for seals was built in 2004 in the pier zone near submarines on the coast of the Barents Sea.

'' This makes daily research and training possible round the year in the animals' natural environment. The seals can thus be used for assisting special forces in combating underwater subversive operations,'' Mr Matishov said.

He pointed out that experience showed that marine animals could be used in naval operations for 15 to 20 years.

'' We have developed the most advanced methods of using these animals for protecting submarine bases and preventing terror attacks. There are no services of this kind anywhere else in Russia,'' he said.

Dolphins were used for the first time to protect the US 7th Fleet off the Kam-Ranh base during the Vietnam war.

Dozens of dolphins and sea lions from a special force of the US Navy were actively used in warfare in the Persian Gulf in 1991-2000.

Dolphins were used in NATO's Baltic Challenge 98 exercises in Klaipeda to detect mines and shells in the Baltic Sea. Similar exercises, like the Blue Game, was held off Norway in 2001.

UNI