Thousands of tons of war wreckage sank into the fabled lagoons of the South Pacific islands during the naval and air battles of World War II. But instead of devastating the region’s underwater ecology, the detritus of human conflict turned into artificial reefs, upon which fantastic mini-ecosystems took shape. NATURE gives viewers a new perspective on wildlife in the South Pacific when its cameras board the WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS.

The Solomon Islands and the waters that surround them constitute an enormous battlefield, where 60 years ago U.S. Navy and Marine forces began a monumental assault that eventually would drive Japanese forces northward, back toward their homeland. In addition to its enormous human toll, the fighting left countless ships and aircraft, including fuel and noxious cargo, on the beds of the formerly pristine shallow waters. Surprisingly, however, this intrusion into paradise did not repel wildlife from those waters. Instead, it attracted it.

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Online content for WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS was originally posted May 2003.

For seamen serving in the South Pacific in World War II, dolphins were a curse — and a cure. The sleek, acrobatic marine mammals would often gather at the bows of steaming ships, surfing and playing in the bow wave — and giving war-weary sailors some entertainment. “For a few moments, we could forget all about the war,” one American veteran recalls in NATURE’s WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS.

But dolphins could also cause a scare. At night, the powerful swimmers could stir up light-emitting plankton as they raced to meet a passing ship. The streak of light they created looked an awful lot like an onrushing torpedo, and many a sailor had a few panic-stricken moments before they realized the curious dolphins posed no threat.

Today, dolphins relate to the U.S. Navy in a whole new way: they’ve been enlisted as important allies in guarding ships and searching for mines. Since the late 1950s, the U.S. and other nations have experimented with using dolphins and other marine mammals, such as sea lions, for military purposes. Part of the interest stems from figuring out how these animals can swim so fast and dive so deep and perhaps borrow their secrets to build better submarines and ships. But military planners have also been interested in using the animals to undertake risky or difficult missions, such as underwater mine detection, retrieving objects from the ocean floor, or sea guard duty.

Dolphins have been enlisted by the Navy to guard ships and search for mines.

Dolphins have proved adept at such tasks. They are smart and relatively easy to train, and in its heyday, the Navy’s dolphin program boasted more than 100 animals. They weren’t used widely, but many did see service in the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. More recently, several Navy dolphins helped find, mark, and clear mines from a key port during the war in Iraq.

In such operations, the animals use their sensitive sonar to spot the mines, then signal handlers in a nearby boat that they’ve found something by placing one of two special disks in the boat. “They don’t miss anything,” a Navy spokesman told reporters. “If a mine is there, they will find it. Nothing gets by them.”

Sometimes, the dolphins are then asked to mark the mines with a buoy or electronic tag that they carry with a special “nose cup.” Other times, the handlers simply mark the mine’s location on a map and move on. Anti-mine teams will later detonate the device.

When they are not on mine duty, dolphins can also accompany divers, patrol anchorages in an effort to spot infiltrators, or guide ships through hazardous waters. Deep diving sea lions can also take on some of those tasks, aided by special gear attached to their bodies.

But like their human counterparts, dolphins and sea lions can make mistakes or get tired. Trainers use treats and lots of love to keep the animals motivated and happy, but some animal rights activists argue that the military shouldn’t be putting them in harm’s way. Says one: “There are enough lives being lost in war; we don’t need to add another species to the list.”

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Online content for WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS was originally posted May 2003.

Wrecks of Truk Lagoon

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinces/truk_lagoon.html

A database of this WWII ship graveyard.

Solomon Islands Factbook

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/

factbook/geos/bp.html

Facts, maps, and more from the CIA.

Dive Discovery Solomons

http://www.divediscovery.com/solomons/

Links to dive operators and dive resorts.

Solomon Islands Scuba Diving Trip Reports

http://www.diveatlas.com/travel/IndexSolomons.asp

Journals from folks who’ve been there.

Solomon Islands: Dive Sites

http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/

solomon_islands/diving/divesites.html

Descriptions of wrecks and good diving sites from Pacific Island Travel.

JFK’s PT-109 Found, U.S. Navy Confirms

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

news/2002/07/0709_020710_kennedyPT109.html

The story from National Geographic.

PT-109

http://www.history.navy.mil/

photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/pt109.htm

U.S. Navy fact sheet.

A Whale of a Business

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/

frontline/shows/whales/etc/navycron.html

A look at the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program, from FRONTLINE.

BOOKS

Bailey, Dan. WORLD WAR II WRECKS OF THE TRUK LAGOON. San Francisco: North Valley Diver, 2001.

Ballard, Robert. COLLISION WITH HISTORY: THE SEARCH FOR JOHN F. KENNEDY’S PT 109. Washington: National Geographic, 2002.

Darby, Charles. PACIFIC AIRCRAFT WRECKS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. Canberra: Kookaburra Technical Publications, 1984.

McGee, William. THE SOLOMONS CAMPAIGNS, 1942-1943: FROM GUADALCANAL TO BOUGAINVILLE — PACIFIC WAR TURNING POINT. Miami: BMC Publications, 2001.

Rock, Tim. DIVING AND SNORKELING GUIDE TO TRUK LAGOON. New York: Pisces Books, 1994.

To order a copy of WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS, please visit the NATURE Shop.
Online content for WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS was originally posted May 2003.

Television Credits

Narrated by

STANLEY BERNARD

Written and Produced by

CRISPIN SADLER

Photography

MICHAEL PITTS

Film Editor

ANDREW MORT

Dubbing Editor

KEN BARTON

Dubbing Mixer

MARTYN HARRIES

Music

GUY DAGUL

Script Editor

JEREMY EVANS

Scientific & Historical Advisers:

DR ANDREW BAIRD

UNIVERSITY OF THE RYUKYUS, OKINAWA

PROFESSOR RONNIE DAY

UNIVERSITY OF EAST TENNESSEE

KLAUS LINDEMANN

HAILSTORM PUBLICATIONS

BILL BOURKE

JAMES LANSDALE

PETER WOODBURY

Dive Assistant

JOSHUA THOMAS

Location Services — Solomons

NELSON KILE

Researcher

EMMA ROLFE

Production Executive

CHRISTINA HAMILTON

Production Co-Ordinator

ANNA KINGTON

The BBC wishes to thank:

Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau

British High Commission, Solomon Islands

Crew Of The Yacht Wyuna

Solomon Sea Divers

Sir George Lepping & The People Of The Shortlands

The Government Of Chuuk, Federated States Of Micronesia

Crew Of The SS Thorfinn

DDRC, Plymouth

Richard Bull

Helen & Reg Thomas

Anita Manning

Family Of Jean Daugherty

James Dougherty

Series Editor

MICHAEL GUNTON

(c) BBC Bristol MMI

For NATURE

Series Editor
JANET HESS

Supervising Producer
JANICE YOUNG

Producers
PATTY JACOBSON
JILL CLARKE
SUSANE LEE

Associate Producer
GIANNA SAVOIE

Production Assistant
IRENE TEJARATCHI

Production Secretary
AUSTIN RIPLEY

Manager
EILEEN FRAHER

Production Manager
JULIE SCHAPIRO THORMAN

Online Editor
BARRY GLINER

Sound Mixer
ED CAMPBELL

Series Producer
BILL MURPHY

Executive In Charge
WILLIAM GRANT

Executive Producer
FRED KAUFMAN

A Co-Production Of Thirteen/WNET New York And The BBC

This program was produced by Thirteen/WNET New York,
which is solely responsible for its content.

(c) 2003 Educational Broadcasting Corporation

Web Credits

Producer
DANIEL B. GREENBERG
RONNIE GODEANU

Designers
MICHAEL DIMAURO
LENNY DROZNER
KAREN MATTSON
RADIK SHVARTS

Pagebuilding
BRIAN SANTALONE

Writer
DAVID MALAKOFF

Production Artist
RUIYAN XU

Technical Director
BRIAN LEE

Scientific Consultant
SUSANE LEE

About the Writer
David Malakoff is a journalist covering research discoveries and the politics of science for SCIENCE MAGAZINE in Washington, D.C. His writing has appeared in a wide range of venues, including THE ECONOMIST, THE WASHINGTON POST, and ABCNews.com.

Thirteen Online is a production of Thirteen/WNET New York’s Kravis Multimedia Education Center in New York City. Anthony Chapman, Director of Interactive & Broadband. Bob Adleman, Business Manager. Carmen DiRienzo, Vice President and Managing Director, Corporate Affairs.

To order a copy of WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS, please visit the NATURE Shop.
Online content for WAR WRECKS OF THE CORAL SEAS was originally posted May 2003.