Meet Poppy, the dog who’s making headlines in the international science community for being the first-ever animal to successfully detect an underwater oil spill in a freshwater lake. She is also the first dog to detect an underwater spill in a frozen lake.
Poppy is a six-year-old English springer spaniel from San Antonio, Texas. She has contributed to scientific research projects for the Winnipeg-based company, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). But her true expertise lies in her superior sense of smell.
“Dogs can be trained to detect pretty much anything, from drugs to weapons and now oil spills,” says Vince Palace, the head research scientist at IISD’s experimental lakes research laboratory. “Dogs can detect oil at concentrations that are too low for even our most sensitive and sophisticated instruments. This is the first time a dog’s sense of smell has been used in this way.”
But this wasn’t Poppy’s first time sniffing out an oil spill, as she has detected oil on beaches in Texas and Louisiana, says Palace. Dogs have also been used in clean-up efforts following oil spills along the Nova Scotia coast and after pipeline spills in the Prairies. But this is the first time a dog has detected the presence of oil trapped under ice in a freshwater lake, which may have important applications to oil spills in the Arctic.
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Poppy works out of IISD’s experimental lakes area, which is located about 60 km east of Kenora, Ont. This area is composed of 58 remote lakes that are closed to the public and specifically used for scientific research purposes. Federal and provincial legislation allows the institute to use and manipulate these lakes to study the impacts of development on freshwater ecosystems.
This research project was composed of two different tests: in the first test, pans coated in diluted oil were submerged in a lake at depths of one, three, and five metres. Poppy was then positioned at the bow of a motor boat and directed her research team to where the submerged oil-coated pans were located by pointing either left, right, or straight with her nose. Once she came upon the spot where she smelled the oil the strongest, she would sit down to alert her team to the whereabouts of the oil. The team would then mark this location and examine its proximity to the actual placement of the pans.
With about five metres of variability, Poppy was able to locate all of the oil-coated pans. In one research excursion, she was off by about 20 metres, but Palace attributes this to high wind speeds on that day. “These results are quite amazing,” says Palace. “Poppy is searching an area that’s between 600 and 800 metres in length, so finding the oil in those conditions even with some variance is remarkably precise.”
The second test involved cutting a series of nine holes into a frozen lake, allowing these holes to partially refreeze, and then pumping them full of oil. The oil was not actually put directly into the water, but rather it was confined within these semi-frozen holes in an upside-down dome shape beneath the lake’s surface. Out of these nine holes, only a few actually had oil in them. Poppy searched an area that was 400-square-metres in size and correctly sniffed out all of the holes with oil, yielding a 100 per cent success rate.
“Whenever she gets one right,” says Palace, “she gets to play with a ball as her reward. Her trainer, Paul Bunker, does a great job of keeping her motivated.” Bunker is not only Poppy’s trainer, but he’s also her owner. Bunker started the dog training and consulting company, Chiron K9, in 2017 and has even written a book about how to train a detection dog. “I’m using it to train my own dog to find edible, wild mushrooms,” says Palace.
Photo Courtesy International Institute for Sustainable Development. Poppy pictured here with her trainer/owner, Paul Bunker, during a research outing on a frozen lake.
Palace also realizes that it may sound controversial to flood a freshwater lake with petroleum on purpose. However, the institute is held to rigorous government standards and must promptly clean up the spill, dispose of any contaminated water, ice, or snow, and continuously monitor the lake for the presence of oil and other contaminants. All of the institute’s projects are reviewed by a research advisory board and must also be approved by the Ontario Ministry of Environment, Conservation, and Parks.
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One of the most important parts of this study was the speed with which Poppy was able to sniff out the spills, says Palace, as she ranged from less than five minutes to about 20 minutes. This is crucial for detecting oil spills in freshwater, as oil can rapidly sink and is difficult to see once it washes ashore. “We as a society still heavily rely on petroleum,” says Palace. “So we need to develop a strategy to detect oil spills quickly and effectively when they happen.”
Although more research needs to be done, Palace is pleased with the results so far and believes this could be used as a early detection tool for future oil spills, particularly in freshwater or Arctic environments. “Poppy has not yet been trained on ultra-low concentrations of oil that do not have a strong scent,” says Palace. “We hope to expand the research to address this limitation and look for more detection strategies.”
Bonus dog pictures!
Photo courtesy International Institute for Sustainable Development
Poppy has her very own trainee, Kaosz, who is also learning how to detect underwater oil spills.
Photo courtesy International Institute for Sustainable Development
Kaosz pictured here with his trainer, Christina.
Photo courtesy International Institute for Sustainable Development
The IISD clean-up team having fun and looking chilly after a research outing.
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