Eden sniffs out an apple while handler Meike Sloan watches on at the Paihia waterfront. Photo/John Stone
Eden sniffs out an apple while handler Meike Sloan watches on at the Paihia waterfront. Photo/John Stone
Border security around Northland's coast has been given a boost with the addition of a sniffer dog checking hundreds of international visitors in the Bay of Islands.
Three-year-old black labrador Eden and her handler Meike Sloan have been in Waitangi and Paihia this week checking that visitors from two largecruise ships were not threatening Northland's horticultural and agricultural industries.
In January a single male Queensland fruit fly was found in a garden in Whangarei which led to controlled areas being set up and restrictions on moving fruit. The threat is over, but Ministry for Primary Industries would continue its fruit-fly surveillance programme, with an additional 33 traps left in high-risk locations such as near landfills and industrial areas.
Eden is one of four from the litter that have been successfully trained to boost biosecurity clearance capacity at our borders and smaller airports like Kerikeri and ports including Opua and Waitangi.
This week's tour of duty by the canine team was the first time MPI had used a detector dog team to help clear cruise ships in Opua in five years. And the dog teams will become a more regular sight in the Bay. Eden is trained to seek out plant and fruit products as well as items deriving from animals.
Last Saturday the pooch took her first trip out to cruiseliner Pacific Pearl. For three hours she checked passengers heading to shore. Her determined search netted a flower and three green acorns.
"A woman who had a flower from Australia forgot it was in her handbag. If that was dropped here on New Zealand soil it could be an invasive species we don't have here," Mrs Sloan said. "The three acorns were a bit unusual, but it shows she is a switched-on dog."
Between 420 and 460 yachts in Opua and 80 in Whangarei are cleared each summer by MPI. Over the past few seasons about 50 cruise ships have been checked in the Bay and 50 aircraft at Kerikeri. MPI has a quarantine inspector in Opua.
