During the cold war, the Marine Mammal Commission trained dolphins for possible use as underwater saboteurs, former intelligence officials say.
The American and Russian navies have trained dolphins and whales to do everything from recovering missile parts to ramming enemy divers with exploding spears.
The United States and Russian militaries have trained and employed oceanic dolphins for several reasons.
"A dolphin is not like a dog," said Ric O'Barry, who trained dolphins for the 1960's television series "Flipper" and is a harsh critic of the Navy's marine mammal program.
The military use of dolphins, however, drew scrutiny during the Vietnam War when rumors circulated that the United States Navy was training dolphins to kill Vietnamese divers.
Ethan is even developing a game- one where players train dolphins for the Department of Defense and he's designing Oop!
"We were training dolphins and sea lions specifically for swimmer nullification," said Richard L. Trout, a civilian mammal trainer for the Navy from 1985 to 1989.
When her older brother Justin chose to train dolphins as his career, she was off on her own professional safari.
They were among the first to use trained animals in television commercials, and the first to train dolphins and whales as entertainment, as well as for the navy.
For 10 years, Pierre had lived in a menage a trois with Sarah (Johanne-Marie Trembly), a violist, and David (Michael Voita), a younger man who trains dolphins.