Most people picture dogs when they think of search and rescue animals. But in Florida, one unusually skilled teammate is proving there may be another option for difficult underwater missions: an Asian small-clawed otter.
Good Good Good reported that the 2-year-old creature, named Splash, is believed to be the only one in the United States trained to locate underwater evidence and human remains.
Michael Hadsell, president of Peace River K9 Search and Rescue, turned to otters after realizing that traditional search animals and other tools have limitations in water. After 46 years of working with canines, horses, and drones, he began exploring whether otters could detect scent underwater and help with recovery work.
That idea led him to train Splash, who can hold his breath for up to five minutes and use a remarkable underwater scenting technique. He sends bubbles toward a target and then rapidly draws them back in, helping him pick up odors. Hadsell told Good Good Good he was inspired after reading about otters' abilities on a flight and thinking, "If they can work odor underwater, then we can train them."
After just four months of training, Splash recovered a weapon linked to a 25-year-old murder case. At only 8 months old, he was also reported to have found human DNA on a clay brick at the bottom of a lake. Since then, he has been called to at least 20 more recovery missions.
Underwater searches are among the most difficult missions for recovery teams. Lakes, rivers, and oceans can conceal critical evidence and, in some cases, prevent families from getting answers about missing or deceased loved ones. Splash offers a new tool in situations where time, visibility, depth, and current make human-led searches especially challenging.
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Splash is used mainly for search and recovery rather than active rescue. Recovering remains or key evidence can help solve long-cold cases, support investigators, and bring closure to grieving families.
Dogs remain essential to land-based search work, but Splash's success suggests specialized animals may be able to complement existing teams in environments where humans and canines are less effective.
Hadsell said training Splash turned out to be similar in some ways to training a dog. In practice sessions, he places a human-remains-scented object in a pool, lets Splash smell the same odor on a ball, and then sends him diving to the target. Once Splash identifies it, Hadsell said, "He comes up and starts grabbing my mask to tell me he's got something," per Good Good Good.
The team has built strong safety rules around his work. Splash wears a custom harness to stay connected to Hadsell underwater and is not sent deeper than 30 feet. If a current is too strong, he stays out. In open water, team members serve as spotters to watch for alligators and other threats.
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Care for Splash continues after missions, too. Because otters rely on protective oils in their fur, he sometimes needs downtime after exposure to murky water. And when he succeeds, he gets his preferred reward: farm-raised salmon.
"He's out there with the rest of them, wanting to do his thing," Hadsell said. "He's part of the team now."
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