The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife said it plans to bring in a new dog that is trained to sniff out invasive mussels.
The dog is likely to be stationed in Spokane after it arrives, primarily at the Stateline boat check station.
The dog will be used to search any watercraft coming from out of state for mussels that should not be in Washington.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to use grant money to purchase a “mussel dog” sometime next year.
Boat check station workers are forced to inspect all the boats now, which takes up a lot of time. Officials said they expect that having this type of dog around the boat launch will get the process moving much quicker.
“When you have physical inspections with a technician, an inspection could take 5 to 10 minutes,” said Eric Anderson of the Department of Fish and Wildlife. “When you have a dog, it’s able to sniff the outside of the boat. That inspection could go down to maybe a minute or 2 minutes.”
Officials said if the mussels do make their way into a local lake, the dog can be used to detect those as well.
“It’s huge,” Anderson said. “It’s going to be a great asset to the program.”