Zebra Mussell sniffing dogs

Saw on the news Canada,Minnesota are using zebra mussel sniffing dogs.
Wardens were at the boat ramps and the doge were sniffing the boats.
How long before they do it in Texas?

Sounds interesting wonder what the resolve is if the dog alerts zebra mussels ?

Never that would take time and money.

Is Chris Fried going to be heading this?

Little bit late for prevention tactics isn't it .

The photos on Bassmaster today from the Toyota Texas event showed a yellow lab in a kennel with a child standing beside it. It said the dog was used to sniff mussels. I thought it pretty amazing and then see your post. Seems Texas already is.

We saw the dogs today, they were doing demonstrations hourly.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2015/09/12/minnesota-dnr-using-dogs-to-sniff-out-zebra-mussels/

Seems silly and a waste of time and money on TPWD

Absolutely. Birds and flooding spread more than all other means and methods combined. I have no hard scientific proof, only common sense. The sky is falling.

Were these dogs once drug sniffing dogs in Colorado but with the new laws laid off and in need of work retrained & picked up by TPWD ?

I have a poodle than can sniff out bacon,..

Birds? I have seen no evidence of birds spreading zebras. Can you provide links or some other stories?

inpound the boat until dry. I know one of these I am going to get nailed. My livewells take a while to drain and I often head down the road with water dripping. Since I am taking the boat to the house where it sits until the next trip and not another lake I am confident that I am not spreading mussels.

http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/zebra/zmis/zmishelp/means_of_zebra_mussel_dispersal.htm

Here are ways they can be spread. How ever you already seem to think it's irrational for a bird " that lands in water" not to be able to spread zebra muscles... Makes sense.

If you could convince the meth heads they could get high by sniffing zebra muscles, they would have the lakes clean by the end of this weekend.

I saw the demo of the dogs doing the sniff test at the Toyota Bass classic at pizza hut park. Pretty neat

Substrates with high densities of zebra mussels in shallow areas are the preferred foraging areas, and these mussel colonies can be located rather quickly by migrating waterfowl. Migrating waterfowl may carry larval or juvenile mussels in their feathers or on their feet, but it is highly unlikely that they disperse mussels from one waterbody to another.

You should of asked them their opinion on Chris Fried, the game warden who was illegally hunting and then got shot by accident and wasn't fired. But TPWD did allow charity for him without telling the public what he had done was illegal, they kept it hush hush until months later

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/wounded-texas-game-warden-admits-breaking-law-but-/nmrnM/

https://www.facebook.com/buzzifrog/videos/258842117807730/

One of the things we learn in science is that you must separate your emotions from a study to make the most plausable conclusion. As fisherman, we hate to think we are the cause of zebra mussels spreading, so we blame other things - birds, flooding, etc. But take your emotions out of it.

Given the fact that these things are invasive species and we were without them for a very long time, is it more likely that people are the cause of the spread as we have learned to travel the globe, or birds, flooding, and other natural phenomenom that have been around for thousands of years. Take your emotions out of it. The most simple of the two choices is most likely the correct conclusion. It is normal for human behavior to skew a conclusion. When we do that, we are just showing that we are human, but to be a good decision maker, you have to understand human tendencies.

This is a manmade problem. We are the cause. We will be the solution if we can ever figure out how to get rid of the things without completely drying out an area.

I will say that Texas has a unique situation, similar to the Mississippi river as our waterways are attached. Our river basins are all in danger as the waterways connect. Not the case in Minnesota and Canada. Lots of land locked lakes that are very much in danger of boating. There is your reason for the dogs. Agreed that Texas probably doesn't need that in our connected waterways that are already infected, but solid human practices will slow the spread in our state.

Well said, except our river systems are not connected. Look at a map.

He is the warden where my property is located, if he ever tries to ticket me for anything there will be a problem.....but I play by the rules.....

True, river systems themselves are not connected, but their are several resevoirs in each basin that are connected and it is going to be tough to stop the spread. Here is a map of our river basins, and you can see that most of the basins in Texas are already infected. These guys are spreading fast. True, in Minnesota and Canada there are lake chains, but their are many land locked lakes as well. In Texas, boating and water flow will be the biggest causes of spread. Pretty difficult to stop flow, but we can control ourselves. It isn't hard to drain a boat. It is the least we can do to help slow the spread. http://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/exotic/zebramusselmap.phtml

After the first round of flooding subsided in Belton lake you couldn't get to the ramp without crunching on billions of tiny Zebra mussel shells.

Are the dogs going to alert on everyone who ever fished Belton and has the odor on their car mats?

Yes, and the cops are going to take them straight to jail and beat a confession out of them.