Stephen Crowhurst
Senior Member
That rather depends on how you define co-exist and is based on factors that currently don’t exist. If we assume co-exist means that the presence of this particular apex predator is not at the expense and deleterious effect of the ecosystem around it, then the following would be my understanding. Currently the situation is removal of 2 barbel could potentially damage the fish stocks over several miles to the point of making them a non viable population. We’ve seen this happen. So the answer is presently no.But ... will it ever be possible for large female barbel to co-exist in small to medium sized rivers? Otters will always take the easy option when it comes to satisfying their nutritional needs, and large females (especially around spawning time) will be the proverbial 'sitting ducks'.
For it to be a yes based on the parameter above, you would need a healthy and diverse biomass whereby pressure on individual species is spread and a proper recruitment process. If the barbel population was great enough that a handful of females each year wasn’t a disaster and was maintainable and other more abundant easy meals were also present, such as Eels etc then the impact of an healthy Otter population would be marginal and sustainable. That’s a hell of a lot of ifs though and not the hand we have.
The question as I see it is, how do we get from where we are to where we would like to be. It’s obvious that an Otter cull, certainly with the available evidence would never get any public support or momentum and it’s arguable wether the desired result would be achieved as the fundamental issues that lead to the hand we have haven’t been addressed, perhaps not even fully identified.
In my amateur opinion of corse.