Russia has deployed military-trained dolphins to protect its Black Sea naval base in Crimea from underwater attack, new satellite images reveal.
The images, taken by the U.S. satellite company Maxar and analyzed by the nonprofit professional military association U.S. Naval Institute, show that two dolphin pens were placed at the entrance to Sevastopol harbor around the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
This isn’t the first time that Russia’s militarized marine mammals have been spotted. In 2019, Norwegian fishermen reported that a surprisingly tame beluga whale had been harassing their boats while wearing a harness that read: “Equipment of St. Petersburg,” Live Science previously reported.