Angling Trust Calls For Cull Of Otters Eating Too Much Fish

[Steve Coppolo]

Their private forum idea is probably the worst thing thay could have dreamt up. At least with public access you'd get a balanced viewpoint across. I was nearly tempted to spend £20 just to teach that Casto chap a few unconventional yoga moves so that he could see for himself where he was talking from. The thing is, it's not just the public but also anglers who see these comments for the selfish, uneducated, narrow-minded crap that they are.........the AT is not looking good by failing to respond to Casto's verbal diarhoea. I noticed that he posted one of his ramblings on the Times comment site.

 

I've kicked myself a couple of times since terminating my membership, because now I can't respond to all the crap that is being posted on their forum. But, there is no way I could continue to be a member of an organisation that I see as doing damage to angling. And to be honest, in highlighting just how bad they are, I think they and their party faithful are doing just fine by themselves.

[Steve Walker]

I have found it interesting to contrast the attitude of game anglers with that of so many coarse anglers - they all seem to fall into the "delighted to see an otter" camp - perhaps once you have chosen to pursue fish with a method as inefficient as fly fishing, you must already have grasped that there is more to angling than catching as many and as large as possible?

[Steve Coppolo]

I have found it interesting to contrast the attitude of game anglers with that of so many coarse anglers - they all seem to fall into the "delighted to see an otter" camp - perhaps once you have chosen to pursue fish with a method as inefficient as fly fishing, you must already have grasped that there is more to angling than catching as many and as large as possible?

 

I think most anglers are in the 'happy to see an Otter' camp. Certainly, all those that I associate with, are.

 

I wonder whether the Otter haters would also hate Kingfishers if they congregated by overstocked waters and ate their fish?

[Elton]

Did The Times publish a retraction and/or apology? They've put these in tomorrow:

 

http://bit.ly/deNqlb

[captain cojones]

so the angling mistrust, that "represents 1.4 million anglers"..........(what cobblers).........has had huge influence in obtaining a retraction then............................not.

[John S]

I've just added a comment to the Times story, but I'll bet 50p it will not get published

[Worms]

I've just added a comment to the Times story, but I'll bet 50p it will not get published

I added a letter yesterday and guess what?...............nope

[John S]

Perhaps we should all write in to the Times (using the link above), if nothing else they'll just have to pull the story off their site.

[Dave B]

"Sir, People who catch and kill fish for fun are demanding the deaths of otters who catch fish in order to survive. “Country sports” enthusiasts are already responsible for the deaths of countless animals — possibly running into the millions — as they “protect” their target species until they are ready to shoot or catch them.

Now otters may be added to that ill-fated list. Such selfishness and savagery should not be tolerated".

Kate Fowler - Head of Campaigns, Animal Aid

 

 

I don't think that Kate Fowler realises that if it weren't for anglers there probably wouldn't be any otters in the UK. Who is it that looks after our inland waterways? The EA. And who pays for most of that? Us anglers that buy rod licenses.

The EA are pretty quick to react to chemical spillages and other disasters that help protect our rivers and lakes. They also do a hell of a lot of maintenance and routine work to many of our waterways to make sure each individual environment thrives.

Sorry Kate, but you can't have it both ways.

[yorkio]

I think most anglers are in the 'happy to see an Otter' camp. Certainly, all those that I associate with, are.

Crikey, here's one that isn't!

 

www.fishingmagic.com/index.php?news=14710