Letting the Dogs Out (to Sea)  To study and ultimately to
protect highly endangered northern right whales, conservation
scientists enlisted help from some keen-nosed canines
04-01-2009 // Phil McKenna  THE FIRST TIME Bob, a four-year-old
Beauceron mix, got up close and personal with a right whale—a
50-foot behemoth more than twice the size of the boat he was
riding in—he crawled to the bottom of the vessel. Fargo, a
onetime narcotics detection dog, tended to get seasick when
conditions were rough. Yet neither challenge could keep these
canines from the task at hand: tracking large, orange blobs of
foul-smelling whale poop.  In the summer of 2003, researchers
studying the endangered North Atlantic right whale began
employing Bob and Fargo in their efforts to collect fecal
samples from the enormous sea creatures. It was an unusual
arrangement—enlisting one species to help study another—but if
the right whale was to be saved, the scientists decided that
man’s best friend was our last best hope. Three winters ea