Yeah, I’m talking about my nose and the noses on all the rest of us dogs in the world. We are all pretty proud of the things that we can do with our noses. I have written articles before about my fantastic ability to sniff out good things, but this is kind of a different approach.
While I have praised canines for being able to sniff out drugs, termites and even cancer, I recently learned about another use for canine noses. Some are trained to sniff out “zebra mussels” and “quagga mussels”.
Zebra mussels were detected in 1988 in Lake St. Claire one of the smaller lakes of the Great Lakes. It is believed that the zebra mussels came in as stowaways in ships from Russia and the Ukraine. While the zebra mussels are striped, earning their name of zebra mussels, the quagga mussels are slightly larger, with less-defined markings.
Either one of these is bad news.
First they reproduce very fast. Both species attach to anything hard such as, ships’ hulls, propellers, irrigation pipes and in Lake St. Claire, they attached to the shells of the native mussels and have nearly made them extinct!
In Russia and the Ukraine natural predators are able to control the mollusks. However in North America it seems that there are no natural predators to control them. The bottom line is that they are causing a lot of problems in the Great Lakes and now in California. Why should we care? Because their infestations are costing power industries billions of dollars and they are causing problems with the ecosystem.
Once again, canines will save the day!
While it takes many man hours for humans to inspect and detect the little trouble makers, dogs can speed up this process considerably. It is estimated that dogs can save approximately 800 personnel hours a year!
Commonly used dogs are Labs, German Shepherds, and Belgian Malinois as they are extremely friendly with people.
Many states already have canine detection units. They are paired with wildlife personnel and live with the families of their handlers just like police dogs do. The dogs are trained to respond to five commands and only from their handler.
Just like with any program, it costs money to get this under control. It costs $5316.00 to train a dog for this type of work in California. But if you do not already have an animal the cost can increase to $9,500.00!
You may be able to help. Contact Dr. Robert F. Sahara at rsahara@pacbell.net .
I first heard about this problem in a previous interview. When I did my search, I located a great article by James A. Swan, Ph.D. His article was entitled, California going to the dogs—it’s a good thing. Check out his article for more information and tips for what to look for on your boat.
www.jamesswan.com
