A Labrador Won Animal of the Year for Professionally Staring at ‘Sea Vomit’

A six-year-old black Labrador from the Scottish Highlands has been named Animal of the Year for an unusual specialty: finding an invasive marine creature nicknamed sea vomit. Sgiath received the honor at the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s (IFAW) 26th Animal Action Awards on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026.¹⁴

Her quarry is the carpet sea squirt, known to scientists as Didemnum vexillum. Left unchecked, it can smother and kill native species, so finding it early matters.¹ Confirming the species often takes specialist lab analysis and DNA testing. Sgiath can pick up its scent quickly, even when it is tucked among other marine life.²

The ceremony took place at BAFTA in London and was hosted by wildlife presenter Michaela Strachan. Seven recipients were honored: six people, plus one Labrador.³⁴

From mountain rescue to the shoreline

Sgiath first trained as a mountain rescue dog. Her owner, Dr. Texa Sim, a marine ecologist based near Glencoe, wondered whether those skills could help marine conservation. The idea came to her while she was working on a native oyster restoration project on Scotland’s west coast.¹²

The job required a change in manners. In mountain rescue, a dog barks to signal a find. On the shore, Sgiath gives what is called a passive indication: she goes still or fixes her stare on the spot.¹

Working at low tide with Sim, Sgiath has found hundreds of colonies of the sea squirt, according to Sim’s account reported by the BBC.¹ Sim has also trained her to find small fragments of it on boat hulls, fishing gear and ropes, as well as on beaches.⁴ Plenty of Labradors take a keen interest in unpleasant things on the beach. Sgiath does it professionally.

Why a sea squirt is worth hunting

The carpet sea squirt is thought to have come from Japan. It reached the south of England and Wales in 2008, and it has since spread to several UK coastal sites. It ranges from orange to cream in color.¹

It reproduces quickly in the warmer summer months, and there are fears that warming seas could help it spread further.¹

Dr. Martyn Kurr, a marine biologist at Bangor University, told the BBC that non-native biofouling species (organisms that grow on underwater surfaces) can outcompete native wildlife. They can also clog aquaculture pens, marine infrastructure and boat propellers. Controlling them costs millions of pounds a year across Europe.¹

A promising start, not a cure

Sim calls the work a proof-of-concept project, meaning a test of whether the idea works at all. “When I first started this project, I genuinely didn’t know whether it would work,” she told the BBC. “It began as a proof-of-concept project and has exceeded every expectation I had.”¹ No trial data on Sgiath’s detection work have been published.

She also sees the dog as a tool for earlier detection, not a complete answer. “We’re not going to solve the problem entirely with dogs,” she said, as reported by The Independent.²

Accounts of how unusual Sgiath is vary. The BBC describes her as thought to be the UK’s first sea squirt-hunting dog.¹ The Independent and Countryfile go further and describe her as the first in the world, a claim that rests on the word of the charity and her handler.²⁴

“Sgiath’s story is like nothing we’ve seen before,” Sharon Livermore, IFAW’s director of Marine Conservation, said in The Independent’s report.²

Kurr is already looking ahead. “It’s fantastic to see Sgiath get this much deserved award, and I’m very excited to see what other wonderful work we can do with sniffer dogs,” he told the BBC.¹