Dr. Evil may have wanted sharks with frikkin' laser beams attached to their heads, but the U.S. Navy already has the next best thing. This trained dolphin is used to locate submerged mines and enemy divers, which are then captured by Navy personnel.
The Navy recently demonstrated their abilities during Operation Trident Fury, a joint U.S. - Canadian operation off the Canadian coast near Vancouver. Ed Budzyna, a spokesman for the Navy's Marine Mammal Program said that the bottle-nosed dolphins have sonar capabilities that are "unmatched by anything man made."
The Marine Mammal Program actually goes back over 40 years, and the dolphins have been used successfully during the Vietnam and Gulf wars. In 2003 dolphins cleared the harbor at Umm Qasr on the Persian Gulf of mines, so ships carrying humanitarian aid could safely enter.
The Marine Mammal Program has also deployed sea lions for their excellent underwater eyesight, and is looking into using Beluga whales for their acute hearing. When you add in those dogs the Navy SEALs used during the Osama Bin Laden raid, it makes for quite a menagerie. I'm sure all of them are far more effective than Dr. Evil's ill tempered sea bass.
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