Meet Splash, The Only Search & Rescue Otter In The US

As most people know, dogs possess an incredible sense of smell. Some dogs can smell drugs, while other dogs can detect bombs, stress, pregnancy, cancer, invasive plants, or a diabetic individual's imminent seizure. For more than four decades, forensic diver Michael Hadsel has been training dogs to sniff out bodies for his Peace River K9 Search and Rescue Association in Florida. Then, a few years ago, he decided to venture into uncharted waters by training an entirely different species, one that has a strong sense of smell, can dive deep, and is able to navigate through even the murkiest of Florida's waterways: otters.

Splash is a 2-year-old Asian small-clawed otter, donated to Hadsel by the World Wildlife Zoo in Arizona. The otter quickly responded to scent training, learning how to dive into a swimming pool and locate an item with the odor of human remains on it, but figuring out how to work with humans took Splash a bit longer. "The operational training — learning to work from a boat and following directions — was difficult," Hadsel told People. "As wild animals, they really don't have a desire to please, so it can be a challenge."

Even a trained otter is still a wild creature at heart. Splash started out as a zoo animal, not a domesticated pet. "He still had some wild animal behavior," Hadsel told Outside. "The biggest problem was teaching him not to bite people. If an otter is mad at you, he will bite you. If he wants to play, he'll also bite you."

Splash learned to follow verbal commands, but Hadsel realized they also needed a way to communicate when the otter was swimming in waters that sometimes hid predators such as alligators. Hadsel explained to Outside that he devised a code and tied a length of string to Splash: "One tug is turn right, two tugs is turn left, and three tugs is come back to the boat."

It took four months of training — and lots of tasty salmon rewards for Splash — but the clever otter has now been involved in more than 32 search-and-rescue missions. An Instagram post from September 2025 explained that Splash's "specialty is locating old remains (10-30 years old) at the bottom of lakes or rivers."

An otter detects scents underwater by first blowing out air bubbles. "He's sucking some of those bubbles back in and he's tasting them. The odor attaches itself to the bubble and then he tastes it when it comes into his mouth," Hadsel explained to 10 Tampa Bay News.

Hadsel wasn't expecting Splash to become a member of the family, but that's exactly what has happened. The otter plays with Hadsel's dog and cat, sleeps in the bed with his human family — sometimes sharing a pillow with Hadsel — and even accompanies the family on shopping trips to places like The Home Depot, wearing a little harness when he's out in public. Splash has also been a popular guest at conferences for law enforcement. Hadsel is optimistic about the future of otters in scent work, saying to 10 Tampa Bay News, "I expect to see a lot of otters out there. I think they'll be standard issue probably in 10 years from now."

Want to see more cute otters? Check out these 19 adorable otters you really "otter" take a look at. But if you're feeling tempted to add a creature like Splash to your own household, you should know that having a pet otter might not be as fun as it sounds.