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Otter Petition

I see the goverment has given the go ahead for the managment of Cormorant and Goosander .

We as anglers talk about the impact Otters , Cormorants , Goosander , Crayfish have had on fish stocks ?

I find it odd / strange that nobody seems to be prepared to talk about or add to the list illegally introduced Zander to our rivers many years ago ?

I wonder what sort of a impact Zander has had on fish stocks ? and is another part of the problem of dwindling fish stocks ?
 
Joe Fletcher said:
I see the goverment has given the go ahead for the managment of Cormorant and Goosander .

We as anglers talk about the impact Otters , Cormorants , Goosander , Crayfish have had on fish stocks ?

I find it odd / strange that nobody seems to be prepared to talk about or add to the list illegally introduced Zander to our rivers many years ago ?

I wonder what sort of a impact Zander has had on fish stocks ? and is another part of the problem of dwindling fish stocks ?
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By 1000 a year, Oh wow!:confused:
 
I was match fishing on the fens in the 70's when the zander started making an impact. All zander caught were killed as a matter of course, It made absolutely no impact.
Having said that I have signed the petition on the grounds that any noise made is better than none at all.
I gave up fishing the Ouse about 5 years ago because of otter predation.
the barbel fishing will come back to its former glory after the excess otters have died off because of a dearth of food.
The people releasing otters back into the wild didn't seem to realise that they had died off because of the lack of their natural preferred diet of eels.
 
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Otters ACTUALLY died off because certain chemicals used in agriculture (chemicals which are now banned) dramatically lowered their breeding success rate. The huge upsurge in otter numbers owes more to that ban than to the introduction of farmed animals. All that did was to speed the process up, which of course was yet another totally pointless waste of money and time. Otters would have naturally regained their former numbers without man interfering further once that problem was removed.

However, these farmed animals still worry me, because in my mind there is a distinct possibility that being raised in this way will have changed their natural behaviour patterns, making them far more damaging to fisheries than their wild brethren. I am assured that this is unlikely because of the low numbers that were released. The trouble with that theory is that it requires one to believe in the official figures for numbers released...........

The other troublesome fact is that, as said previously, otters have never before enjoyed the total protection status they do now. Obviously, that is bound to result in more otters than ever before...at a time when many of our rivers are just not healthy enough to support the fish population required to feed them. To suggest that otters are 'too intelligent to eat themselves out of house and home' is utter unthinking tosh. They will of course naturally start reducing in numbers once they cannot find enough food to raise broods of youngsters. Sadly, by that time, many of our endangered species will have been pushed beyond the point of no return....it will be too late for them. Otters will kill and (at least partially :rolleyes:) eat any living critter they come across that is small enough to take on. When you are an apex predator as big as they are, that includes EVERYTHING that lives naturally in our waterways.

I find it very sad that once again, mans interference is likely to cause yet another wildlife tragedy. Knee jerk reactions from the utterly clueless morons in Brussels who now rule our lives, is likely to end with another disaster to add to their odious list.

Cheers, Dave.
 
As posted elsewhere......

It may help if someone starts a petition along the lines of:

We hereby ask DEFRA (specifically Natural England and the Environment Agency) to undertake a study of our fresh water river systems with a view to confirming the following points and taking appropriate action where deemed necessary:

* In many rivers why is there a distinct lack of coarse fish in the 2oz – 2lb Range?

* What impact is avian predation (specifically Cormorants and Goosanders) having on our rivers and is it sustainable in terms of maintaining healthy and expected fish stocks?

* In relation to the above two points, are our river systems capable of supporting Otters in a contained environment, or is lack of available food forcing them to feed elsewhere and bringing them in to conflict with stillwater anglers, ornamental fish keepers and commercial fish farming?

* What is the true environmental impact of non-native invasive plants such as Himalayan Balsam and Giant Hogweed, and specifically in terms of river bank erosion which may be causing fish spawning beds to silt up? In addition Giant Hogweed presents a serious health risk to humans which cannot be ignored.

* What is the true environmental impact of non-native and invasive aquatic animal species such as Signal Crayfish and American Mink, and what can be done to control/eradicate them?

Not saying its perfectly worded, plus there's been that many badly worded petitions before, people have lost interest. You also have to consider that DEFRA departmental budgets are becoming seriously squeezed!

Regards,

Neil
 
Bang on, Neil. Now compare that to the posted petition and tell us we were wrong to say don't sign. Much better than 'the otters need controlling'.
 
Judging by the red squirrel and the capercaillie, that was quite possibly photographed in Scotland Russ...I don't think they have much in the way of barbel for them to go at up there :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
Judging by the red squirrel and the capercaillie, that was quite possibly photographed in Scotland Russ...I don't think they have much in the way of barbel for them to go at up there :D

Cheers, Dave.
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Not forgetting the crested tit, grouse and ptarmigan Dave :)
 
Just what are otters feeding on now, especially with all this extra water around? Surely they just don't know where to start.
shrug.gif
 
Perhaps the poor devils will all die , then no more Otter threads , petitions etc . I n all seriousness the half tame ones that pop up all over the place will really struggle in these terrible floods
 
I would imagine the really young ones will drown .
The not so young could starve to death and the some of the Adults maybe starving to death ?
 
Joe Fletcher said:
I would imagine the really young ones will drown .
The not so young could starve to death and the some of the Adults maybe starving to death ?
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Joe, I imagine that they will just look further afield for their food, away from the rivers....something they do at times anyway. The down side of that from the otters point of view is that more of them will be killed on the roads. Lots of otters are killed that way anyway, and that will obviously get worse in the current circumstances (BAD pun :eek:)

I would imagine that unfenced commercials will take a pounding as well (those that aren't flooded themselves) :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
Andrew Mcnamee said:
I see there is 4792 that may think the same way and 67 mil+ that maybe dont ! I do love my fishing but cant find anything funny about something drowning.
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If you took that comment seriously Andrew, then I suspect you find great difficulty in finding anything funny :rolleyes:

Tell me, do you lose sleep over the fate of maggots and worms too? :D Oooops....sorry about the smiley, deadly serious stuff this...cough :p Oh damn...theres another one. Sorry.

Cheers, Dave.
 
Andrew Mcnamee said:
I see there is 4792 that may think the same way and 67 mil+ that maybe dont ! I do love my fishing but cant find anything funny about something drowning.
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Andrew, a lot of the otters that are about now are the offspring of otters that were reintroduced into environments where no studies had been done as to the capability of the environment to support them, there parents were in most cases hand reared before being released, they had no fear of man at traite that seems to have been passed on to their offspring.

What I suppose I am getting at is the fact that these otters are not truly wild as they have no fear of man, truly wild otters have for hundreds perhaps thousands of years survived floods just as bad as we have now, if they do not have the instinct of a truly wild animal that is the fault of the idiots that chose to reintroduce them.

If otters are drowning/starving that is only the natural way of things, but what isn't natural was the hand rearing and subsequent release of otters that were ill equipped to survive in floods that a wild otter may be better equipped to handle.

All down to interfering do gooders that really didn't have a clue about the consequences of their actions. They did what THEY wanted to do without any thought of the knock on effect on the environment.

I am not sure about what your figures are but If its to do with the amount of signatures on the petition its a big jump to think that all that haven't signed do not agree or not informed enough to sign or that they have all seen it.
 
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Graham Young said:
Andrew, a lot of the otters that are about now are the offspring of otters that were reintroduced into environments where no studies had been done as to the capability of the environment to support them, there parents were in most cases hand reared before being released, they had no fear of man at traite that seems to have been passed on to their offspring.

What I suppose I am getting at is the fact that these otters are not truly wild as they have no fear of man, truly wild otters have for hundreds perhaps thousands of years survived floods just as bad as we have now, if they do not have the instinct of a truly wild animal that is the fault of the idiots that chose to reintroduce them.

If otters are drowning/starving that is only the natural way of things, but what isn't natural was the hand rearing and subsequent release of otters that were ill equipped to survive in floods that a wild otter may be better equipped to handle.

All down to interfering do gooders that really didn't have a clue about the consequences of their actions. They did what THEY wanted to do without any thought of the knock on effect on the environment.

I am not sure about what your figures are but If its to do with the amount of signatures on the petition its a big jump to think that all that haven't signed do not agree or not informed enough to sign or that they have all seen it.
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Good post Graham
 
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