TAMU-CC finds tar clumps with help from dog ‘Poppy’ [Video]

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A man’s best friend is making a huge effort to help keep our Coastal Bend beaches clean.

Poppy the English Springer Spaniel is trained in oil spill response, her job is to detect tar clumps buried under sand and seaweed.

Tar is not new to our area, it can occur naturally and effect our environment. 

Dr. Loretta Battaglia from the Island University’s Center for Coastal Studies said it is working on an app to be released that allows the public to report tar they see while out on the coastline. 

“Ultimately what we’d like to do is turn over this app that we’re building to the public so that we can enlist them to help us in some citizen science end when they’re out on the beach they can report tar balls and then it goes into …