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Angling Times otter article

Stephen Crowhurst said:
Not seen it printed for a while but early 00’s it was quite a popular tag line by the EA.
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Well we might start hearing it again the if the Chairman of the EA, Sir James Bevan gets his way. He wants to do away with the 3 Water Framework Criteria used to judge the 'Good Ecological Status' of a river. Which is currently:
- Biological quality (e.g. fish, benthic invertebrates, aquatic flora)
- Hydromorphological quality (e.g. river bank structure, continuity of the channel or substrate)
- Phyisco-chemical quality (e.g. temperature, oxygenation and nutrient conditions)

He is pushing for each river to be judged on one specific criteria and that the EA should choose the criteria on a case by case basis!!! You couldn't make it up.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Well we might start hearing it again the if the Chairman of the EA, Sir James Bevan gets his way. He wants to do away with the 3 Water Framework Criteria used to judge the 'Good Ecological Status' of a river. Which is currently:
- Biological quality (e.g. fish, benthic invertebrates, aquatic flora)
- Hydromorphological quality (e.g. river bank structure, continuity of the channel or substrate)
- Phyisco-chemical quality (e.g. temperature, oxygenation and nutrient conditions)

He is pushing for each river to be judged on one specific criteria and that the EA should choose the criteria on a case by case basis!!! You couldn't make it up.
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As I said, the EA use the otter and its spread, as a KPI to endorse their belief in their own propaganda that rivers are of a good standard and improvement, but ironically we are then lead to believe that the reason for the decline in barbel populations is due the decline of the barbels habitat, environment and river quality, its the same habitat that the otter appears to thrives in, so it doesn't make sense.

I will reiterate, a rising otter population on any river where barbel are present, either indigenous or stocked, will see a rapid demise of the barbel population, to its ultimate tipping point, where the fall is seen and recognised in anglers catches.

Only last summer, on the BBC, we saw an EA representatives extolling the growing Otter population on the Dove and put it down to the way the river and its quality had improved, and used the otter as an indication of this.
 
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The Bristol Avon has a very healthy otter population I cannot remember the last time I didn't see one when fishing into dark even during the day now. The barbel population started to diminish around 2006 when I was catching almost 100 a year including many doubles, this year I caught 2. Fifteen years ago though May and June it was easy to spot big groups gathering for spawning now its the odd few. I think the otters arrived when there may have been an unnatural amount of large barbel and the otters dined out on this. Around 2007 we had some terrible flooding which didn't help and I firmly believe that the river is of such poor water quality which doesn't aid recruitment. I think its plain to see smaller rivers suffered the most and otters didn't help the situation but they are probably not the only cause of their reduction.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Pleasant as always Phil.

It's pretty clear that no more releases are planned..

And its pretty clear that the ones that were released over a 16 year period were not released illegally.
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Misinformed as always Joe, if you believe a group of 7 otters together is natural that is your choice.
 
Neil Blood said:
I'm curious, is there genuine proof that 7 Otters were seen together? We are talking highly territorial animals here, which do not tolerate intruders.

Fights between males can be quite vicious and apparently they go for each others nuts!
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Neil, the proof was that a large group of the public were watching them and that included an RDAA manager, you are correct in that it shouldn't happen but it did.
 
Neil Blood said:
I'm curious, is there genuine proof that 7 Otters were seen together? We are talking highly territorial animals here, which do not tolerate intruders.

Fights between males can be quite vicious and apparently they go for each others nuts!
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It does sound a bit far fetched, but I suppose its not impossible for a pair of breeding otters to have bred 5 kits. It's usually 2-3, very occasionally 4.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
Well we might start hearing it again the if the Chairman of the EA, Sir James Bevan gets his way. He wants to do away with the 3 Water Framework Criteria used to judge the 'Good Ecological Status' of a river. Which is currently:
- Biological quality (e.g. fish, benthic invertebrates, aquatic flora)
- Hydromorphological quality (e.g. river bank structure, continuity of the channel or substrate)
- Phyisco-chemical quality (e.g. temperature, oxygenation and nutrient conditions)

He is pushing for each river to be judged on one specific criteria and that the EA should choose the criteria on a case by case basis!!! You couldn't make it up.
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Then he should be hit by stiff and through opposition with robust evidence. I’ve said it before I know but we, not just anglers but many groups want the same things and we out number those that don’t by a country mile.
 
Lawrence Breakspear said:
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I count two Otters? I remember those Otters on the River Thet, as I’m a keen birder and there was a Black-bellied Dipper (continental version) wintering on the river. Various bird photographers turned up and when the Otters were spotted, they started nipping down to Tesco in Thetford to buy sardines from the fish counter........ it all got a bit silly in the end, with the Otters waiting to be fed 🙄
 
Neil Blood said:
I count two Otters? I remember those Otters on the River Thet, as I’m a keen birder and there was a Black-bellied Dipper (continental version) wintering on the river. Various bird photographers turned up and when the Otters were spotted, they started nipping down to Tesco in Thetford to buy sardines from the fish counter........ it all got a bit silly in the end, with the Otters waiting to be fed 🙄
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the point of the video was not necessarily the amount of otters, though I think, on the basis of what I was told, there were 3 otters involved, but how they showed no fear to the gaggle of photographers on the bank...
 
If you think those are tame, check out this one that I filmed on Shetland:


I stopped filming as I crapped myself, wish I’d carried on, as when it walked right up to me. It lay down on its belly and rested it’s chin on my foot like a pet dog 😲

Clearly a rehabilitated animal, which was expecting me to feed it.
 
Re. 'unnatural to see 7 otters together', re 'otters waiting to be fed'. Animals, all animal however 'wild' they are, adapt to their environment. That's how they thrive. What was 'unnatural' becomes regularly observed behaviour. Photos below were taken by me, with the otters ~6ft from my feet (this was not in the UK)

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