- That’s one impressive nose.
Every year, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hands out its Animal Action Awards. They recognize those who have made significant contributions to nature conservation and protecting vulnerable critters.
Among the prizes is the Animal of the Year Award. It goes out to a beast that has been a great help to its four-legged (or otherwise equipped) animal friends.
This year’s animal award was handed to Sgiath, a Labrador retriever from Scotland. The good girl carries out a crucially important mission along the Scottish coasts.
She hunts sea vomit.
In reality, the gelatinous stuff is not vomit but an extremely invasive species of sea squirt. These mindless invertebrates can form impenetrable choking masses along shores, in harbors, and on ships.
Sgiath is able to sniff out the slimy invaders even when they’re hiding under other odorous marine debris. That’s particularly impressive when you consider that she was originally trained to search for lost hikers.
Congratulations to Sgiath! May she continue to serve with distinction for many years to come.
A Born Sniffer
Sgiath is a six-year-old black Labrador from Scotland. Although she’s now received an award for it, it took a career change before she started sniffing out sea vomit.
That said, she has always been a working dog. However, Sgiath was originally a rescue dog who would track lost outdoor enthusiasts in Scotland’s moors.
Her career trajectory changed when Sgiath met her current handler, Dr. Texa Sim. She is a marine ecologist working to protect Scotland’s coasts from invasive species.
She had been looking for a quick, low-cost method for finding the invaders wherever they may lurk. That’s when she thought of a scent-detecting dog – but the idea was entirely untested in her field.
“When I first started this project, I genuinely didn’t know whether it would work. No one had really explored whether dogs could help tackle this problem in the marine environment,” Sim told The Independent.
Soon after hiring Sgaith, though, Sim discovered that her idea was nothing short of fantastic. Or maybe it was all on Sgiath, who quickly proved to be an expert in her new job.
“The first time I asked her to identify the target species among lots of similar scents, she went straight to it,” Sim explained.
Sgiath is so capable that she can find the bottom-dwelling sea vomit underneath thick layers of tidal debris. If you’ve ever caught a whiff of the half-rotten mass of seaweed and fish, you’ll appreciate how impressive that is.
Invasive Vomit
But what on earth is this “sea vomit” that Sgiath is hunting? To put things short, it’s bad news wherever it shows up.
The stuff that’s called sea vomit is actually masses of the sea squirt Didemnum vexillum, otherwise known as the pancake batter tunicate or carpet sea squirt. These invertebrate creatures stick together, forming expansive sheets on the seafloor that resemble a carpet, pancake batter, or a pile of puke.
Originating in Japan, the sea squirts have spread throughout the globe, hitching rides in ship ballast. They’ve proven to do just fine outside their native environment and have become a dangerous invasive species.
Sea vomit can grow on virtually any hard surface, and they’re prolific breeders. Should they become entrenched in an area, they will soon spread across the seafloor – and onto land in tidal areas.
The squirts will cover beaches and shores, harbor structures, boat bottoms, and oyster beds alike. As they do so, they choke out all native life underneath them, threatening local ecosystems.
As such, Sgiath is doing a valuable job by pointing out places where sea vomit is trying to anchor itself. However, she can’t save Scotland on her own.
“We’re not going to solve the problem entirely with dogs but they give us another tool. If we can identify the species earlier and more efficiently, it gives conservationists and site managers a much better chance of responding before the problem gets out of hand,” Sim said.
After all, teamwork makes the dream work. And Sgiath has certainly proven herself to be an award-worthy part of the team.