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 large cruise 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.
