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Dogs are the new tactic aiming to keep out invasive mussels

Dogs, drones and DNA testing are emerging as new tools to detect invasive species and keep them from becoming entrenched in B.C.
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Mussel-detecting dog Hilo sniffs a boat trailer at an inspection station in Alberta.

Dogs, drones and DNA testing are emerging as new tools to detect invasive species and keep them from becoming entrenched in B.C.

The new tactics were described by experts at a recent conference of the Invasive Species Council of B.C. in Richmond.

Trained sniffer dogs have proven much more effective than human teams, particularly at night, in detecting tiny invasive zebra mussels that can cling to boats and then infest new lakes, according to Cindy Sawchuk, who heads Alberta’s Conservation K9 program, they help inspect water craft arriving in that province from the east and south.

Most of the 11 mussel-infested boats intercepted last summer entering Alberta from other jurisdictions were ultimately destined for B.C. lakes. Sawchuk’s superiors had dismissed her proposal for dogs as useful only for public relations, so she designed a trial in 2014 to test them.

“The dogs were 100 per cent accurate in detecting the mussel-fouled boats and our humans came in at 75 per cent,” Sawchuk told delegates. “The dogs were also much quicker at detecting it. They averaged 2.3 minutes. And that included their play time for their reward.”

Speedier inspections also mean less resistance from boat owners, some of whom had told Sawchuk they’d taken to entering the province in the dead of night to avoid inconvenience.

The three highly trained dogs — Hilo, Seuss and Diesel — cost $25,000 each but Sawchuk said they’re cheap compared to an estimated $75 million a year Alberta estimates it would spend clearing clogged pipes, canals and water intakes if mussels arrive.

The Okanagan Basin Water Board are supporting the province in recent efforts to control invasive mussels for the 2016 boating season.

The Okanagan Basin Water Board was updated on a provincial staff proposal Tuesday to have eight full-time inspection stations to be set up at key crossings to combat invasive mussels. Five on the B.C.-Alberta border and three along the B.C.-Washington border.

“The proposal is consistent with what we have been requesting since 2012,” said Corinne Jackson, communications director for the Okanagan Basin water Board.

She said the directors agreed to send a letter to government officials supporting the proposal and urging it be adequately funded and staffed.

“It’s great that the staff have put this proposal forward and fully support it. We just want to see that it’s actually adopted and funded properly. Funded, but also staffed,” Jackson said.

Delegates also heard from Fisheries and Oceans Canada scientist Davon Callander who is using DNA testing of water samples in the B.C. Interior to quickly determine if a given lake has a particular invasive fish species.

Drones are being used near Creston to aerially map infestations of yellow flag iris, an invasive plant, in hard-to-reach wetland locations.

Catherine Tarasoff, a researcher with Thompson Rivers University, hopes the rapidly evolving technology will soon allow scientists to program drones to fly autonomously at high speed, scanning large areas and stopping only to alert their operators when a suspect patch of vegetation matches target images. Technology may be helping thwart alien invaders.

But Gail Wallin, executive director of the Invasive Species Council of B.C., says the best prevention rests in better choices by people, whose decisions in the past ushered in many of the species now disrupting ecosystems in B.C.

The release of pets into the wild — rabbits, goldfish, koi and even the bizarre snakehead fish found in a Burnaby pond in 2012 — are yet more examples of where people could do better, Wallin said. B.C.’s costs of dealing with invasive plants alone is estimated to hit $139 million a year by 2020, twice as much as in 2008.

-With files from Jeff Nagel/Black Press