A nose for lobster eggs

The Dept. of Fisheries and Oceans has a new tool to catch fishermen trying to bring lobsters with eggs, or berried, on shore. And it will wag its tail when it sees you.

Buddy is an 8-year-old German Shepard trained to sniff out the scent of lobster eggs; the first of his kind in North America figures his handler John Stuart.

Stuart is currently the only dog master with the Dept of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada, and has been a dogmaster for 18 years. The dog unit started in 1984, and is currently based out of the Coast Guard office in St. John

Stuart raised Buddy from a puppy, starting with a four-month training regime for basic service, and as his career has moved forward more tasks were added to his profile. Buddy is trained for tracking, illegal clam diggers, drugs, firearms and officer protection. It’s probably this new profile that will surprise most people though.

The idea to train Buddy to search for lobster eggs came after Stuart trained another dog he had to find Abalone in British Columbia. However he figured if a dog could be trained for abalone, why not lobster eggs?

The training was intensive, starting with sterile samples, with no human contamination and working from there. The process involved hiding live lobster with eggs, then just the eggs in wraps, and lobsters with no eggs. Then they used egg samples and played the shell game, where Buddy had to find the right container with the eggs.

After a year of training and getting certified, Buddy is ready to begin his patrol on the coastline of the Maritimes.

Buddy’s track record so far is an impressive 85 per cent success rate. When he finds something, Buddy will dig at the site in an effort to uncover it. However it’s not quite as simple as turning him loose on the wharf.

Since many scents are all around him, Stuart has to point him to the area he wants searched. There’s a bit of interpretation on Stuart’s part as well. If Buddy’s tail is wagging, something has caught his interest. Digging means he’s found something. Pawing means something else. “The two of you are partners. He’s telling you what he smells, and it’s up to you to figure out his body language,” he says.

There are some limits as well. Buddy won’t actually go on a boat, since eggs can fall off when handling a lobster that is thrown back and give a false positive. Where he is used the most is on the wharf, as the lobsters are loaded onto crates, inside the trucks and at the pounds.

However it still makes the officer’s job easier when going through catches. “It cuts down the time officers spend going through catches,” says Stuart, adding it’s also good for fishermen, since searching takes up less of their time as well

Although finding berried lobster is serious business for the DFO, to Buddy it’s all a game. Buddy does his task, and gets rewarded at the end if he finds something. If Buddy doesn’t find anything at one site, with the owner’s permission Stuart will hide something on site for Buddy to find. Stuart explains this keeps Buddy’s interest in the game for next time.

It was a good demonstration at one wharf visited as he travelled through Queens Co. Some fishermen didn’t believe it at first either. When nothing much was found, Stuart hide a packed of eggs in a crate. Several fishermen watched and were quite amazed at Buddy’s skills as he searched out and found them within minutes.

Stuart says he’s not sure if the dog unit will expand to add other dogs to smell lobster eggs, but figures if it is successful the administration will be taking a good look at it.

Bill Wolfe, Conservation and Protection Field Supervisor with the Queens Co. DFO, say they hope to bring Buddy down on a constant basis during the lobster season. Right now Buddy and Stuart are travelling the province to demonstrate what Buddy does, but already they have been put to work.

On Dec. 9 at a Shelburne Co lobster pound, he sniffed out equipment used to scrub eggs from female lobsters and found one berried lobster. The investigation is ongoing, but came as a direct result of Buddy’s involvement.

If find lobster with the glue for eggs is found, DFO has the technology to test and tell if the lobster was actually scrubbed, or had laid the eggs.

The motivation to keep berried lobster is mostly due to money, says Wolf. A berried lobster has no more value than regular lobster, and the eggs are not used for a delicacy However throwing a lobster back that weighs 2-3 lbs is money the fishermen can’t get and has to try for again.

Mistakes do happen, and DFO takes many factors into consideration when they find a berried lobster. However it’s still up to the fishermen to check their catch. “It’s up to the captain and the crew to take the time to uncurl the lobster and check for eggs.”

nmoase@theadvance.ca

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