Dear All,
This issue never fails to inject controversy. And if that's how it effects anglers, think how controversial it would become once the Tarka loving public get involved?
For clarity. Quote; "The Otter Trust released 117 captive-bred otters between 1983 and 1999, mostly on East Anglian rivers, but with some elsewhere. Their last release was of 17 otters on the upper Thames catchment over a six-month period in 1999.
The Vincent Wildlife Trust released a further 49 rehabilitated animals (i.e. orphaned and injured wild otters kept in captivity until fit for release) between 1990 and 1996, many of these as part of a release programme in Yorkshire.
By the early 1990s it was clear that a strong natural recovery of otters from their strongholds in Wales and south-west England meant that reintroductions were no longer necessary, and by the end of the decade the Otter Trust’s programme was wound up. Now descendants of the released otters form only a tiny proportion of the otter population of England, and most wild otters are the result of the natural recovery of the species after the banning of toxic pesticides."
Whilst I am sceptical about the last paragraph, simply because I have written documentation that proves a lot of the captive releases bred successfully, there is no doubt that those original numbers of captive bred releases did not effect fish stocks on rivers directly. They did however, and this is also well documented, result in the total decimation of a number of still water fisheries where carp stocks were wiped out. Indeed, these original incidences of otter predation formed the basis of the SACG/SAA campaign headed up by Chris Burt to highlight the problem with a specific aim of getting government funding for otter fencing to protect still water fisheries from otters.
Being involved with the campaign at the time my primary concern was the river environment and how any otter revival would effect specimen angling and the stocks of specimen sized fish in rivers. I had read countless papers and studies carried out on otter behaviour which confirmed that otters would indeed target the bigger specimens, especially in winter when fish are torpid. Otter do not hibernate and can be quite active even on the coldest days.
At the time I had no doubt that the otter revival would result in conflict between the huge rise in specialist angling and the otter and said as much in political meetings at the time. I always thought that otters would have little impact on fish stocks and specimen sized fish on our country's larger rivers, but predation would take a heavy toll on some smaller rivers. There is no doubting that this has already happened on many smaller rivers. Rivers like the Wensum for instance has poor recruitment in many areas so predation upon the Wensum's specimen sized fish would be a devastating blow for specialist angling there and of course has proven to be the case. Its the same with Adams Mill with other rivers now coming under serious threat.
However. And this is part of the reality. Even though specimen angling is worth a huge amount of money to the nations economy, we are very small beer in comparison to public opinion and a public that love otters. Added to them, are the hundreds of wildlife organisations, most of whom are very well organised and funded. There is no British or European politician who will go any where near this issue as it stands at the moment. So specimen anglers are in between a rock and a hard place. In plain terms. Our prized fish are important to us, but not to the majority. Otters are one of the very few "wasteful" predators known to man simply because they never return to a kill preferring fresh quarry every time they are hungry.
I know that many here will disagree, but no amount of photographs showing dead fish half eaten by otters will sway public opinion. We are just going to have to get used to the fact that some rivers, and stillwaters of course, will see their specimen sized fish disappear. In the longer term, newly thought out strategies might well prove to be effective towards changing the public opinion about what is after all an apex predator.
Regards,
Lee.
