nmmpexposed@gmail.com
PART ONE
This You Tube channel playlist shows the Navy Marine Mammal Program to have a sizable population of research-compromised dolphins and looks at two dolphins, each filmed over the course of near three weeks in FEB and MAR 2017. They are in obvious poor health and distress to the point of death, one unidentified, the other Makai. The first two videos from 01/07/17 and 04/7/17 show a third dolphin, surface-dwelling with a completely collapsed dorsal fin.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK-PB3LIeUR-gkIBWgBCBszYHIvFMEoIZ
While the Navy has been tight-lipped on any dolphin deaths, and insist none have died since early 2015, they did release a statement that an “Iraqi war hero named Makai” was euthanized on 04/11/2017. What they failed to report is that Makai was subsequently off-loaded post Iraq to the scientific research program, per the 2016 Marine Mammal Inventory Report, and is seen in these clips to enter the medical pen and quickly need more support and assistance to the point of no possibility of rehabilitation. http://www.cbs8.com/story/35126503/navy-dolphin-euthanized-at-san-diego-spawar-facility
On the heels of that story comes a more detailed version of
the sanitized propaganda the Navy would have the public believe. The coverage was sparked by footage obtained
over the course of nearly 6 months that tells a very different story. http://www.cbs8.com/story/35271969/grayfish-video-exposes-navy-dolphin-care-on-san-diego-bay While the Navy has been tight-lipped on any dolphin deaths, and insist none have died since early 2015, they did release a statement that an “Iraqi war hero named Makai” was euthanized on 04/11/2017. What they failed to report is that Makai was subsequently off-loaded post Iraq to the scientific research program, per the 2016 Marine Mammal Inventory Report, and is seen in these clips to enter the medical pen and quickly need more support and assistance to the point of no possibility of rehabilitation. http://www.cbs8.com/story/35126503/navy-dolphin-euthanized-at-san-diego-spawar-facility
In response to this story, the Navy has moved select pens, including the medical pen and certain dolphins, those the worst state of compromised health.
This has rendered the Navy dolphins to a warehouse
in San Diego-Point Loma and their use has become irrelevant for military use and in fact, unreliable, as the Navy admits a number of dolphins have gone AWOL on practice missions. The terminology on the (Marine Mammal Inventory Report (MMIR 2016) has evolved from "inadvertent release/escape" to simply "release", a more palatable term then the reality.
The videos shot over the course of six months show excessive use for teaching interns, externs and an invitation to
federally-funded research by NGO’s and private companies with the approval of
an internal Navy committee called the Internal Animal Care and Use Committee(IACUC). To date, the Navy has refused to answer who and with what affiliation the members of the IACUC are, although we know the Primary Veterinarian is likely Navy, with other positions filled by their partner in research from the National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF), who are paid at least $41 millions dollars, even though the Navy claims the NMMP costs just over $20 million. Your tax dollars are paying for research that is
questionable, non-transferable, invalid by virtue of repeated use of the same
dolphins, the small group testing size, the lack of controls, repeatability, how the dolphins
were selected for the biological research, outcomes and finally,
applicability to wild populations. the IACUC is supposed to research any study done on the Navy dolphins for other similar research and the Department of Defense Directive includes a process to make sure the dolphins are protected from any repetitive similar testing. In
short, the validity of the testing has to be scrutinized by independent
researchers.
Any part of the Navy's rhetoric that dismisses that great
number of dolphins living and dead that have been repetitively used in testing
that compromises health, and worse, puts them at risk of death is not
speculation anymore. The controversy over the
treatment of the animals and the nature of its mission and training is clear by
virtue of the Navy’s own 2016 Marine Mammal Inventory Report and the fact we have been given a first hand look at that treatment over a period of months by the Navy's decision to temporarily move the sea pens to a location in a public water channel, in front of a public bridge where the Navy has no jurisdiction. That is how the You Tube videos were obtained from a formally unobservable location at the Navy Sub Base at Point Loma. Of those classified for scientific research,
109 have died, ONLY three have been compassionately euthanized, although the listed
cause of death is most assuredly painful and created much suffering. hat brings up a key issue, that of
compassionate euthanasia. That would be very much a part of what the Navy
calls “care that exceeds all regulatory standards", rather then use dolphins to teach those interested in working with captive dolphins at the expense of great suffering, as documented by the video.
The 2016 MMIR shows hundreds of dolphins that were
designated captured for scientific research, since the inception of the program. The program was declassified in the 1990’s,
and while FOIA requests have provided valuable information, many requests have been declined, in particular the necropsies of
dead dolphins (some drowned). There exists questionable Cause of Death reported on the MMIR and some pending for years. The possibility
dolphins died as a result of organ failure or reactions due to research cannot
be ruled out.
Federally-funded research has a lack of
oversight, except by the internal Navy committee. Additionally, the Navy boasts “thousands of
research papers” on these animals over time, all of them vetted
by the internal committee, as required by both the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) a voluntary organization with no legislative power and Animal Welfare Guidelines. While there are other organizations that participate in research with the dolphins, a partial
and most recent list of research conducted only by NMMF is located at this
website: http://www.nmmf.org/publications.html#conbioresearch
See also: http://www.nmmf.org/uploads/5/7/8/1/57816535/nmmf_five_year_report_2016_final_compressed.pdf
The Navy states that they are regulated by:
APHIS/Animal Welfare Act https://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/downloads/AC_BlueBook_AWA_FINAL_2017_508comp.pdf
The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums - http://www.//ammpa.org
Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/laws/mmpa/mmpa_2015_revised_2017.pdf
Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory
Animal Care International (AAALAC). AAALAC is a nonprofit NON-REGULATORY
organization, whereby membership is VOLUNTARY. Full accreditation for 2015 here: https://cloud.acrobat.com/file/bde5432d-fed7-45fa-b609-c6ab3942d893
The DOD Directive, an internal document the Navy says
goes beyond the requirements of all other regulatory requirements. http://dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/471503p.pdf
Coming soon:
Part Two - How the Navy Subverts Marine Mammal Protections
Coming soon:
Part Two - How the Navy Subverts Marine Mammal Protections
