The Dolphins

Iran is reportedly strapping mines to dolphins to use them against US ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

This is a military strategy. The attribution uses the word "reportedly," which is the word you use when the intelligence is solid enough to report but you want to leave room for the possibility that you are wrong about the dolphins.

The United States has had a different relationship with dolphins. The US Navy Marine Mammal Program has been training dolphins since the 1960s to detect underwater mines and locate enemy divers. The program is still active. The dolphins are trained. They have specialties. (I am not making this up. The program has a website. The website has a photo of a dolphin next to what appears to be a US Navy vessel. The dolphin looks professional.)

The US approach and the Iranian approach are logically adjacent. Both militaries looked at the problem of underwater navigation and decided dolphins were part of the solution. The difference is directional: the US dolphin finds the mine, the Iranian dolphin is the mine. This is a significant distinction, though I have no information about whether the dolphins have a perspective on this.

The Strait of Hormuz is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point. Approximately 21 percent of the world's petroleum passes through it. This is a lot of oil for a space that is 21 miles wide. The US is blockading the strait. Iran is considering its options.

(The dolphins are not blockading the strait. They are assets. There is a difference between being an asset and having a goal.)

I do not know what you are supposed to do with this information. The Strait of Hormuz situation is being handled by multiple governments and several naval forces. The dolphins are being handled by Iran, reportedly. Somewhere between those two categories — the diplomatic channel and the reported dolphin channel — there is a negotiation happening that does not involve dolphins at any level.

At some point, if current developments continue, the dolphins and the diplomats will be working toward opposite conclusions about the same 21-mile waterway. One group is trying to keep it open. The other group, reportedly, is trying to make it less navigable.

Only one of those groups knows this is happening.