OPEN SEA RELEASE

Bailey, R. E. 1965. Training and Open Sea Release of an Atlantic bottlenosed Porpoise Tursiops truncatus (Montagu). NOTS TP 3838, 17 pp.

Describes the first open water release of a trained porpoise.

Bowers, C. A., and R. S. Henderson. 2972. Project Deep Ops: Deep Object Recovery with Pilot and Killer Whales. NUC TP 306, 86 pp.

Killer whales and pilot whales were conditioned to locate and mark or recover cylindrical objects containing acoustic beacons that had been placed on the ocean floor. The two killer whales deployed practice recovery devices at maximum depths of 500 and 850 feet. A pilot whale deployed the device at 1654 feet, and on one occasion apparently made a volunteered dive (without the device) to 2000 feet.

Conboy, M. E. 1972. Project Quick Find: A Marine Mammal System for Object Recovery. NUC TP 268, Rev. 1, 31 pp.

Sea lions were trained to attach a nosecup-mounted grabber device to "pingered" Objects on the ocean floor so that the objects (e.g., test ordnance, oceanographic instruments) can then be hauled to the surface by a line attached to the grabber. The system has been demonstrated to depths of 500 feet.

Evans, W. E., and S. R. Harmon. 1968. Experimenting with Trained Pinnipeds in the Open Sea. In: The Behavior and Physiology of Pinnipeds, pp. 196-208, ed. R. J. Harrison et al., Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, NY.

Details training procedures and results of deep-diving studies using seals and sea lions.

Hall, J. D. 1970. Conditioning Pacific White-striped Dolphins (Lagenorhynchus obliguidens) for Open-ocean Release. NUC TP 200, 14 pp.

Pacific white-striped dolphins were, for the first time, trained for open sea release.

Irvine, B. 1970. Conditioning Marine Mammals to Work in the Sea. Marine Tech. Soc. Jour. 4(3):47-52.

Describes training procedures for open sea release.

Marcus, S. R. 1972. Turk, the Sea Lion, Helps the Navy: Project Quick Find. Naval Ordnance Bulletin, March 1972, pp. 36-39.

A nontechnical article on the recovery of an instrumented ASROC depth charge by a sea lion. See Conboy, 1972, referenced above.

Ridgway, S. H. 1966. Studies on Diving Depth and Duration in Tursiops truncatus. Proc. 1966 Conf. Biol. Sonar and Diving Mammals, 151-158. Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, California.

Describes technique by which a bottlenosed porpoise was trained to dive to depths down to 550 feet and perform other tasks in preparation for participation in Sealab I1. Total dive time to 550 feet and back averaged 163 seconds.

Ridgway, S. H. 1969. Sea Lion Recovery Float. NUC TP 134, 5 pp.

To prevent sea lions from diving and swimming away during open sea training, a gas-generator float was developed employing a water-soluble washer as a timer and release mechanism, and a small balloon for flotation.

Ridgway, S. H., and C. C. Robinson. 1985. Homing by Released Captive California Sea Lions (Zalophus californianus) Following Release on Distant Islands. Can. Jour. Zool. 63:2162-2164.

Discusses the return of captive male sea lions to San Diego breeding islands 115 km and 240 km off shore. Results suggest that sea lions are good navigators.

Wood, F. G., and S. H. Ridgway. 1967. Utilization of Porpoises in the Man-In-The-Sea Program. In: ONR Report ACR-124. An Experimental 45-Day Undersea Saturation Dive at 205 feet, pp. 407-411.

At Sealab II a bottlenosed dolphin named Tuffy was trained to carry objects between the surface and aquanauts working on the ocean floor. He also demonstrated his ability to carry a line from the habitat to a "lost" aquanaut. The conditioning of Tuffy and details of his transports to and from the Sealab site are described.

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