3 dogs help protect Alberta’s waterways from invasive mussels

WATCH ABOVE: Four legged sniffers are becoming an important tool to make sure boats entering our lakes are free from pests. Erik Mikkelsen reports.

LETHBRIDGE – Zebra and Quagga mussels are a serious threat to the health of the province’s waterways, so three furry inspectors have been recruited to help prevent an invasion.

These species can spread quickly and have to ability to attach to watercraft and survive out of water for up to 30 days. Once introduced to a water body, they are virtually impossible to remove.

The province estimates that if there was an invasion of the invasive mussels, it would cost Alberta over $75 million to manage, as well as pay for damage to infrastructure and recreational opportunities.

“It would be a huge detriment – it would impact the recreation in Alberta, it would impact the fisheries in Alberta, and it would impact all the irrigation infrastructure in Alberta,” said chair of Eastern Irrigation District Board Bob Chrumka. “There is no positive to having mussels introduced into Alberta.”

That’s where Hilo, Seuss and Diesel come in.

Alberta’s newest, and furriest, official watercraft inspectors have been working their tails off at mandatory boat inspections across the province since June. Their job involves finding and locating the invasive species on watercraft.

The dogs have been working along borders to assure the invasive species never make their way into the province, all with some excitement.

“These dogs have a super high energy, a really high ball drive, and a good ability to stay focused…They’re really just a little bit crazy,” said aquatic invasive species operations lead and dog handler Cindy Sawchuk. “They don’t make your good family pet.”

Minister of Environment and Parks Shannon Phillips was on hand at the demonstration to express the excitement of the province’s new “employees.”

“What the dogs do, is what humans can’t. They can find the very, very small mussels that humans don’t see – what might be missed on a visual inspection,” said Phillips.

Their strong noses aren’t the only special characteristic of the dogs: all three canines were rescued from across North America just for the job.

“We’ve seen this happen in other jurisdictions,” said Phillips. “Where rescue dogs are sort of given a second chance through a targeted amount of training and work with one specific handler – and it’s worked in this case with these three dogs.”

Hilo, a black Labrador Retriever cross was given to the Conservation K-9 Program from the Guide Dogs for the blind after he flunked out of training school.

Now Hilo, and the other pups have a new career and a lot of sniffing ahead of them for the rest of the summer.