One of the reports I saw said the bond between the dolphin and their trainer is a lot like between the K-9 dogs and their handlers
(a friend of mine is a K-9 police officer and his dog lives with his family). They said the dolphins are trained to spot the mines, come up and let their handler know there's a mine in the area, then he (or she) goes back to put a marker by it. They don't actually make contact with the mine, and yes, they get a good dinner out of it. They have specially equipped tanks on the airplanes as they are flown to where ever they're working. The picture I saw of a dolphin standing on his tail -- he had a video camera on his flipper so they could see what he was seeing -- I'd vote for an oscar for a dolphin before I'd vote for Michael Moore!