Otters under attack? (From Daily Echo)
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Otters under attack?
11:30am Sunday 31st January 2010 in
They line the riverbanks every weekend to enjoy one of the country’s greatest pastimes.
The ancient sport is more popular than ever with a record 1.5m angling licences sold in England and Wales last year.
But while anglers are keen to talk tackle, weights and rods, there is one subject that they are much less inclined to mention. It’s the c-word, cull. For when it comes to catching some of the country’s most prized fish, the angling community has now got stiff competition – the otter.
But while one Hampshire fish farmer called for a cull this week after the furry creatures ate £30,000 of his stock, the wider angling community is not echoing his call to arms.
“This is a really big issue, angling has been hit really badly and we have been warning this could happen for the last ten years,” said Greg Whitehead, deputy news editor of the Angling Times. “We know lots of lakes that have had carp or fish stocks entirely wiped out. But we haven’t called for a cull. We don’t really want to make ourselves extremely unpopular in the eyes of the public because let’s face it, otters are lovely, cuddly animals and people think they’re fantastic. Cull is a really evocative word.”
The debate flared this week when Mark Simmonds, of Romsey, declared his fish farming business had been left in ruins by the protected creatures. He was horrified to discover 105 of his 122 carp dead, dying or missing. He has now moved the remaining 17 to a site protected by an electric fence and has abandoned his Romsey fish farm.
He believes one family of otters was responsible for the attack.
The 54-year-old warned that unless otters are culled, river fishing across Hampshire could be wiped out within five years.
However the Angling Times prefers to stress the need for scientific investigation.
“We just want some responsible, sensible research,” added Mr Whitehead. “To leave people with no management option is ridiculous. People are going to lose a lot of money, businesses are going to go under, angling clubs are going to go under. It’s just tragic.”
While he did concede illegal culls are undoubtedly “quite” widespread, he did not want to be drawn on the subject.
“We don’t really want to write about it because we don’t want to look like uncaring brutal killers only interested in catching fish.”
The angling community states that the problem has been getting steadily worse since otters were reintroduced in the late 1990s.
However Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust say just three otters were introduced to Hampshire in 1996 to re-enforce a virtually extinct population, in line with government guidelines.
In decline since the late 1950s, the otter – a heavily protected species since 1978 – had seen its numbers decimated as a result of chemicals used in agriculture amongst other factors.
The Trust states that the otter population – which has gradually improved since 1978 – has in fact grown naturally thanks to a number of measures, not least the improving water quality of our rivers and lakes.
“A lot of these fisheries developed without any predators,” said Graham Roberts, Otters and Rivers Project Officer at the Trust. “They have got used to running them without any protection measures in place.
“In Hampshire we have some of the most lucrative fishing industries in the country. If you have very high stocks of fish in high concentrations, it creates too much food in one place and the only way to secure it is to protect it properly. It is a temptation to otters and this is a growing concern.”
The risk of predator attack – said Mr Roberts – could be greatly reduced by custom-made fencing where possible.
“We need to work together to find the best methods of protecting fisheries and safeguarding otters for the future.”
Comments(21)
Common
says...
11:45am Sun 31 Jan 10
southy
says...
1:21pm Sun 31 Jan 10
so this left a very big empty vacate spot, with the release of minks by the animal liberators, they soon spread across the south chalk rivers, having no competition on the rivers for food. and what else help the minks to populate fast, was the trout stock fishing farms of another fish that was interduce to this country, the rainbow trout, natural weight of those fish is about 3lb but force feeding was pushing there weight up to 20lb plus.
otter's natural fish it most eats is eels, but will take other kinds of fish if they are to slow, weak/ill or over populated, carp because it not a natural fish to europe, but an interduce fish from asia, is a slow swining fish from the rice paddy fields where it use the rice stalks to weave in and out of to hide or to get away from its predators, they dont have such luxury here, the natural size for a wild carp in asia is only about 5lb max with a few getting bigger.
what they can do to help, is to remove all eel traps and crawfish traps in none tidal waters, stop all elver fishing and trapping for the next 10 years. give the otter some thing else to feed on.
freefinker
says...
1:40pm Sun 31 Jan 10
-
'Southy, I bow to your local knowledge concerning mink and the River Test. It is possible the release near Ringwood allowed mink to colonise some new areas where they had been absent or rare previously.
However, they had already become a major pest species throughout most of England prior to this release. You only need to look at hunting history. When otter hunting was banned (1970's?) almost all the otter hunts changed seemlessly to mink hunts and carried on as though nothing had happened.
The decline in otter numbers was caused by a variety of factors but mainly by pesticide pollution (organochlorines and polychlorinated biphenylsas - both now banned) combined with hunting pressures. Their decline created the ecological niche for the mink to take over their territories. Both have similar aquatic requirements, but where they are in direct competition for resources it is usually the otter that prevails.
Therefore, our most hopeful solution to the mink problem is to encourage the recovery of otter populations wherever we can.
Mark Simmonds and others of similar short-sightedness, in calling for an otter cull, are just showing their ignorance of ecology and our native wildlife. But what else would you expect from individuals in the "business" he is in?'
southy
says...
3:22pm Sun 31 Jan 10
if you look at a population map of the mink, the main areas was not down here in the south and south west, they are more at home in acid rivers and prefer the more colder weather than real hot weather. but if an area is over populated or over fished they will move on to other areas. but the mink release just out side of ringwood and fordingbridge and having all those fish farms here on the chalk downs must of been paradise for them, there numbers soon went though the roof.
it a bit like poachers being blamed on why the sea trout and salmon stocks went down, they dont even scratch the surface of the population but they got the blame for years. then they blamed the commercial fishing boats for taken to many, and again this was not the case. the real problem was man made fertilizers come of the land and washing out to sea and ending up on the feeding grounds where salmon and sea trout spent most of there years growing at sea, the fertilizers help the population of the sea lice to grow in an uncontrollable numbers, and the problem of fish scalp. (this is where a sea lice latches on to the forehead of a fish and just eats away into the brain of the fish). the other problem was the fish farms them selfs, the waste in the pens was allowed to go straight in the rivers and clog up the spawning grounds, plus the lost of many small streams that sea trout use to move into to spawn.
the problem here has like in many other cases, is they will blame every thing else or every other body, but dont look at the actions that they are doing could be what at fault.
i keep looking at that picture of that carp, and there some thing not right, need to know more like where are the fish being found in the water, or pulled in to shallow water, or on dry land, i thinking that this man is blaming the otter because he knows no better. like if its found in the water away from the banks, it could be a zander, whitch is a hybrid of a perch and pike or a pike and perch, cant remember whitch way round it is.
Iw61
says...
6:14pm Sun 31 Jan 10
Stop carping on about the fish farmers!
Brite Spark
says...
6:39pm Sun 31 Jan 10
Iw61 wrote:Use your own jokes!
Join the Campaign for Otters Rights!!
Stop carping on about the fish farmers!
Andy Locks Heath
says...
6:46pm Sun 31 Jan 10
southy
says...
7:40pm Sun 31 Jan 10
Andy Locks Heath wrote:thank you andy. i been looking now for 3 years but not come across them. you find those two books are very interesting read.
Southy, ref a previous thread - I'll keep my eyes open at second hand book shops for O. K. If I see anything by him I'll pick it up and let you know.
X Old Bill
says...
7:44pm Sun 31 Jan 10
I always thought is amusing that when he retired from the Army his voice suddenly changed from 'clipped Army Officer' to the gentle countryman tones.
Back on topic: As I pointed out in the other thread; Otter hunting had virtually finished when it was finally banned, a ban being largely superfluous. On the other hand mink numbers, and territories, have increased since the Hunting Act 2004. This seems to coincide with the time when the fish farmer noticed a problem. Hardly a coincidence I think.
The Ytene mink hounds, while taking their name from the New Forest, used to hunt well across into Dorset. I have followed them as far West as West Stafford, Dorchester, and they had good reason for being there - there was quarry in the water.
forest hump
says...
9:38pm Sun 31 Jan 10
see my comment on the previous otter article. There is an Ollie Kite DVD on sale at http://www.newforest
museum.org.uk/new-fo
rest-dvds/ It is fascinating. Also, take a look at the other two which detail the Refinery construction and the New Forest.
southy
says...
9:53pm Sun 31 Jan 10
forest hump wrote:thank you forset hump. i just place an order for the ollie kite cd
Andy,
see my comment on the previous otter article. There is an Ollie Kite DVD on sale at http://www.newforest
museum.org.uk/new-fo
rest-dvds/ It is fascinating. Also, take a look at the other two which detail the Refinery construction and the New Forest.
Andy Locks Heath
says...
9:17am Mon 1 Feb 10
southy
says...
9:58am Mon 1 Feb 10
Andy Locks Heath wrote:lol dont tell them andy. a mad rush of 2.
Thank you Forest Hump. Like Southy I will definitely be off to purchase one and possibly the others you mention - they will probably wonder where the sudden rush has come from :-)
bemused26
says...
11:27am Mon 1 Feb 10
I'd rather see river fishing wiped out than the otter wiped out. And I am not in any way anti fishing. I love to fish but I'd rather see otters thriving in and around our rivers. The fish farmers should surely just spend some money on properly protecting their stock.
Miles Way
says...
1:05pm Mon 1 Feb 10
Why not electric fence the bigger pond then - a fairly inexpensive and effective way of keeping otters out (provided he doesn't fence them in)
B. L.
says...
3:16pm Mon 1 Feb 10
southy
says...
4:15pm Mon 1 Feb 10
B. L. wrote:if i write a book it will not be about river life even lo its a good idea, it be more about the first 4 years on leaving school while i was working on a government ship in the southern ocean. and the wild life there.
Have to say this southy, your comments on this article are really fascinating. Maybe you should write a book on your knowledge of the local wildlife and their habitats, would make interesting reading and I'm sure people appreciate you more for these posts. Better than some of the other articles you post on . :)
best people i know that could right a book on this river and its wild life are very old friends of mine. woodford and toy, both older than me so they been around the river a lot longer than me.
B. L.
says...
5:27pm Mon 1 Feb 10
southy wrote:Hmm. Sounds like the "John Biscoe" to me, the Antarctic Research Ship.
B. L. wrote:if i write a book it will not be about river life even lo its a good idea, it be more about the first 4 years on leaving school while i was working on a government ship in the southern ocean. and the wild life there.
Have to say this southy, your comments on this article are really fascinating. Maybe you should write a book on your knowledge of the local wildlife and their habitats, would make interesting reading and I'm sure people appreciate you more for these posts. Better than some of the other articles you post on . :)
best people i know that could right a book on this river and its wild life are very old friends of mine. woodford and toy, both older than me so they been around the river a lot longer than me.
southy
says...
5:36pm Mon 1 Feb 10
The Wickham Man
says...
7:30pm Mon 1 Feb 10
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freemantlegirl2 says...
11:42am Sun 31 Jan 10
Where's the proof this was otters?, as several contributors have mentioned it could have been mink, foxes. Time to invest in protecting your stock, not killing otters who have taken years to get established again.