Buddy, the lobster egg-sniffing German shepherd, is rewarded with a toy after successfully finding a lobster in Saint Andrews, N.B. (CBC)

For six years Buddy has been tracking salmon poachers, illegal anglers and people digging clams in prohibited areas, but the Department of Fisheries and Oceans believes the German shepherd is the first to be able to detect lobster eggs.

Buddy and John Stuart, a Saint John fishery officer, are working in St. Andrews at a training exercise, honing the dog's unique skills at sniffing out egg-bearing lobsters.

Stuart lets Buddy out of his metal crate and the German shepherd quickly finds some lobster eggs hidden in a pile of pipes, clawing at them to let Stuart know he's found something.

Stuart said he came up with the idea of training Buddy to detect lobster eggs a couple of years ago. It's illegal for fishermen to keep egg-bearing lobster, but catching them is difficult because the crustaceans carry their eggs under their bellies.

So until now, fisheries officers had to turn every lobster over by hand to check them.

"It speeds up the time. The dog can do probably 20 crates of lobsters in five minutes where it would take us probably five hours," Stuart said.

Fisheries officers will still have to check crates for other infractions, such as undersized lobsters.

But Stuart said Buddy will save them time and money by narrowing the search for egg-bearing lobsters.

Buddy can help lobster conservation

Natalie Hamilton-Gibson, a lobster researcher, said Buddy will also help with conservation efforts.

Lobsters can carry thousands of eggs, but Hamilton Gibson said only a fraction of them survive.

To make matters worse, the so-called berried lobsters carry their eggs during the spring and fall, lobster fishing seasons.

"That's why there's the whole emphasis about conserving the berried lobsters, so this will be quite significant to preserving them," Hamilton-Gibson said.