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Otter PR machine in overdrive

And it's something that the public are glad to hear about in these uncertain, rather desperate times - twice yesterday, in a brief "Please" and "Thank you" shopping conversation and in another with a lady in a queue, both people non-angler normal sorts, the subject came up - and how pleased they were to hear about the otters...
 
Looking at the survey maps and percentage pages makes for depressing viewing.
Looks like the game keepers in the southern region have some kind of grip on the matter though. ;-)
 
Last Saturday I was at the Llanfylin show with a SRT stand. The town up their organised there own campaign to clear up and improve the river Cain that runs through the town. We had helped them out. The people involved in this weren't anglers, but some are now. We have also been invited into the local school and run fly life course for the kids many of whom are now keen on angling. One of the things that most excited people especially the kids was that otters were now being regularly sighted on their river along with the improvements to fish stocks. The increase in otter numbers (they never went away totally on the upper Severn tributaries) has been an important factor in encouraging people to care for their local river and to get some of the kids away from their X boxes and going out fishing.

I know such ideas are unpopular here, where otters are seen as an enemy, however to most people they are seen as a symbol of a healthy environment and people who want to get rid of them are seen as not at all nice people. Unfortunately the message that anglers are anti otter is out there now and I had to explain to two people who visited the stand that only a very small (but loud) minority of anglers were anti otter and the vast majority enjoyed seeing the animal now and again on the banks. In fact I stressed that one of the best ways of seeing otters, kingfishers and other wildlife was to go out fishing.
 
Some interesting points Pete. As an angler, I am all for "biodiversity" and welcome the otter as one of a number of natural predators. However, that diversity should not be at the expense of the demise of another species in the ecosystem, barbel included!

The average conservationist is much more concerned with what can be seen living on and around our waterways rather than what lives within them, which they rarely see. The latest news reports clearly reflect this bias.

Of course, fishing is still good on the Severn. I wonder if otters would be seen as the enemy if stocks dropped to the levels of the Great Ouse and otters were prevalent?

Stephen
 
Just looking at some of the replies on that Guardian link Paul posted, its clear that a lot of people view anglers as fish killing, otter hating b'stards.

It's quite worrying to see that so many think we kill all fish! But then when you consider the number of times I've been asked that pearler of all questions, 'do you put them back?' its not such a surprise.
 
The Otter is the symbol of all things cute and the public but into this whilst blindly forgetting that the Otter is only a small part of the big picture as far as the squeezing of habitat for all our other indigenous species. I don't think for one minute the Adder Slow Worm or Common Frog will inspire such a wave of support. It is not therefore a level playing field those cute Otters certainly have the star quality whilst poor of Toady has to fend for himself.
Actually this is not much to do with conservation, more that these wonderful enviro-mentalists find it easy to fund themselves as the saviour of everyones favourite cuddly toy.
I for one don't buy into it, you can Paul, but please do us all a favour and stop faffing around trying to convince us on here it's for our own good.
 
Fool. I have merely been presenting the facts, ad infinitum et nauseam, to people in order they they're aware of those who, in their blinkered state and one-track ways, could if not actually bring down Angling, certainly damage its long-term prospects horribly.
 
Reintroducing Otters has been a Public Relations excercise since its beginning. NE & the EA can do no wrong in joe publics eyes but Joe Public has limited knowledge about what really is happening to our rivers. Paul is right im affraid to say, we as Anglers have to accept what has happened and get used to reduced fish stocks in many Rivers. Otters have without a shadow of dowt decimated alot of mature fish in some rivers along with just about anything else it feels like feeding on. I know of one Angler who witnessed a Otter hunting a Swan Cygnet it showed no fear even with the Cygnets parents in tow!!!..I know its a hard pill to swallow but Otters are here to stay and fishing on many rivers will never be the same for many years to come maybe even forever. All we can do is sit and wait and see what happens, unfortunately many of our Rivers are facing very uncertain futures due to multiple reasons and at some point the Otter will probably be in danger again due to its food sources becoming less and less. As far as fish stocks on some Rivers are concerned, im affraid its all too late and many mature fish stocks have simply dissapeared..Lets just hope something changes..
 
The fact that the TV reports 'failed' to mention that the current thriving otter populations had been bred in captivity and introduced back into the river environment is highly deceptive. The thriving population 'propaganda' via natural recruitment because the rivers are 'cleaner' is again... B*****ks! Of course, if you release them all over the country even in low quality rivers (like some are), then they will survive for a time and adapt to some degree like most things. With the decline of the eel populations (otters main favorite food source) amongst other opportunist meals on the riverbank, they will diverse to other food sources including ducks, herons, swans, voles, frogs and toads, etc etc to survive and of course... all small and big fish present!
 
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This dangerous "cleaner rivers" malarkey, eh? Statist, pen-pushing propaganda and lies obviously. But why are there many many more (and far bigger) coarse fish in most of the rivers that I know - those of the South and South East of England - now than ever there were in the first 30 years of my 50-odd years of fishing....
 
Because the fish stocks are smaller with less competition for food..There are some very big fish Paul BUT there are not many at all on most of the Southern rivers, you get small pockets here and there, with some stretches with none there at all..
 
Although there's no doubt that otter population has increased I would question the accuracy of the early data. One area is showing no otters until recently when I've been seeing them there regularly since the mid 70's.
 
Paul Boote said:
This dangerous "cleaner rivers" malarkey, eh? Statist, pen-pushing propaganda and lies obviously. But why are there many many more (and far bigger) coarse fish in most of the rivers that I know - those of the South and South East of England - now than ever there were in the first 30 years of my 50-odd years of fishing....
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maybe but future genarations when these fish die off or eaten, what next,
so otters me be not really a problem,
bad habitat , like the EA weed vandals on the Avon and building near rivers,
water extraction..:mad:
signal crayfish and much more, cormorants are a much bigger threat than otters have ever been.
i do feel that Eel's need to be protected much more.
 
Gavin Hoe-Richardson said:
Although there's no doubt that otter population has increased I would question the accuracy of the early data. One area is showing no otters until recently when I've been seeing them there regularly since the mid 70's.
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Absolutely thepoint that I and other were making when so much money was wasted on re introductions. The otter decline was never as extensive as some of the research showed and they quickly re established themselves once the pesticides that caused the decline were removed.

Rachel Carson warned all those years ago of the effects of pesticides in Silent Spring, it took a long time for the world to catch up. The decline of otters mirrored more or less exactly those areas with the highest use of organophosphate's, areas such as the Marches, Scotland and parts of SW England where they were used sparingly or not at all didn't have the decline. However the anti hunt people wanted to blame hunting so we had years and years of hunters being blamed and re introductions being carried out.

Eventually the organophosphate's were banned and the otters returned.
 
It really is nothing short of a miracle we have any fish left at all considering what we have done to rivers and their surrounds in the past 30 to 40 years. When I drove the Hants Avon Valley for the first time since the mid 1980s (there to give talk to a club in Ringwood) earlier this year, my shocked silence was broken virtually every mile I drove, darting off the main drag here and there to see waters I knew and once fished - "F--- me!".
 
paul, someone has said they have seen a otter in the mid colne, i don't think so, more like a black mink...kill em!
 
If you think otters are bad,wait till they decide to re introduce bears,wolves,lynx and many other long gone creatures that used to live in Britain,that should be entertaining.
 
"I had to explain to two people who visited the stand that only a very small (but loud) minority of anglers were anti otter and the vast majority enjoyed seeing the animal now and again on the banks."

I don't know one anger personally that enjoys seeing otters, every one, to a man, would like to see them extinguished from our waters.
 
And yet virtually every gamefisher and better class of coarse fisher (i.e. those who haven't been infected by the "go into mourning for a pet dead carp named Enrique" mindset promoted by various Socs and Mags in the past 25 years, old-time carp fishers were never like this) is fine with otters and welcomes them. You dig your grave, you lie in it.
 
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