That is a false premise Ash. Bears, wolves, beavers and a whole host of other species were 'natural', they were indigenous species to this country...so do they deserve a place in our parks and countryside? Of course they don't, that would be an absolutely absurd idea. Some of them, those predators that had potential to be harmful to humans, were quite sensibly and rapidly exterminated. However, as is our way, other animals that were not dangerous, but were 'a bit of a nuisance', such as beavers etc....were dealt with just as radically. We are humans Ash....we tailor our wildlife, our environment....and our neighbours....to suit ourselves. We are the REAL apex predator, we always have been...and probably always will be. We shape EVERYTHING to make ourselves safer, more comfortable...and to make conditions suitable for amusing ourselves in the leisure time we have ensured is available . Sometimes it seems we even do things...just because we can.
Therefore, to say that otters 'have a place there' purely because our rivers are 'a natural environment' is so far from the truth it is out of sight. Our rivers
themselves do not survive because they are 'natural environments'....they survive, in the same way everything else in our world does...because at this moment in time, we see fit to allow them to. That is because at this moment in time....they amuse us....and because they have not yet become enough of a nuisance to warrant becoming culverted to put an end to flooding...and cease to exist in their present form. However, that obviously may change at any time...they may at some other moment in time become considered to be a real nuisance...and then they will go.
Otters are here again purely because we banned the chemical that caused them to disappear, banned them for a number of reasons I believe. It is highly likely that these chemicals were NOT banned
specifically to save otters, or with that aim alone....it is far more likely that otters got lucky in that sense....and doubly lucky when they then got other 'helping hands' along the way
Natural? what IS natural? Are fields of crops natural? Is any of our countryside in it's present form natural? I think not! NONE of it is 'natural'. It is what we, at this moment, wish it to be...and what we wish changes constantly. In what way then are otters different? In what way do they deserve to 'be'...when so many thousands of other 'natural' animals have 'ceased to be'...at our whim? How do they alone seem to have some obscure 'divine right'?
I actually wouldn't like to see the end of otters on our rivers, oddly enough I am in favour of keeping as many things as possible that remain to us of what we now deem to be 'natural'...in our managed world. I just question this bizarre notion that otters have some holy 'right' to exist...when everything they kill apparently does not enjoy that same right. Time and again I hear 'They have a right to be here, if they wipe out our favourite fish, so be it...it is only natural'. BULL****!....otters have come back, in huge and ever growing numbers, because we brought about the circumstance to allow it...and sadly forgot (or didn't care) that they would be in an environment with no natural predators to control their numbers. We engineered their comeback to a habitat that is in no way capable of sustaining them if those numbers are left unchecked. The utterly unnatural state of many of our rivers means that many of them are hovering on the edge, because of pollution and over abstraction and many other issues...and that means they CANNOT sustain the extra burden of a large predator at this time....especially when they arrive in unnatural numbers.
The otters are having a whale of a time at present (excuse the pun), decimating things such as carp and so on in commercials, pet fish in peoples ponds, irreplaceable specimen fish in our rivers, rare endangered creatures like water voles, or tasty ducklings, goslings, cygnets....in a word, ANYTHING they can lay their predatory claws and teeth on. I KNOW it's not their fault, I KNOW they are only doing what comes natural to them...but they shouldn't be allowed to do 'what comes natural to them', in unnatural numbers quite unsuitable for the environment they now find themselves in.
What I am saying is that their numbers should be controlled to a manageable figure, to numbers that are sustainable on our rivers
in their current state. In my opinion they should NOT be allowed to wipe out all our sizable fish because of some bizarre notion that that would be 'natural'....it ISN'T natural. In nature, there would be large predators keeping otter numbers in check...remember them? Yes....the ones we 'managed' earlier. When and if otters do manage to virtually wipe out every small river, lake, commercial, pond, and all the rest (and their success rate so far suggests they probably will)....what then? Will we have to line the banks of the Wye, Trent and Severn....until the otters descend and overwhelm even those large, healthy rivers, by shear weight of numbers?
Please don't tell me that 'nature will sort it out', that their numbers will 'naturally decline' when the required food runs out. Of course that will happen...but what is 'natural' about allowing that to happen? The savage battles to the death of panicking otters competing for a declining food stock, and the slow starvation that will ensue in time will be natural, in a way. But....it's about time some folk woke up to the fact that when otter numbers reach 'unnatural' levels due to the lack of 'natural' larger, limiting predators...then what happens next WILL be natural....but there is no reason at all why we should allow that situation to arise. The solution is obvious, and entirely down to us. And that WOULD save our fisheries in the process...naturally!
Finally...my last point....why would anyone see it as fair or 'natural' that MY fishing should end...just because they, or some other ill informed person, has decided that, sad as that may seem...in their opinion....it's only 'natural'
IT'S NOT! 'Natural' is when predators are kept in check by bigger predators. WE have brought about the situation where WE are the ONLY 'bigger' predator left in Britain...so surely, having contrived that circumstance, that
should mean that WE have a duty to limit their numbers to a sustainable level. THAT would be natural.
OK...I admit it....I was bored again because I couldn't sleep....so I retaliated by boring you lot. But....some of it makes sense....doesn't it?
Cheers, Dave.
