Does The Otter Deserve Such Bad Press?

[Anglers' Net]

News release from the International Otter Survival Fund (IOSF)

 

Click here to view the full article

[Steve Walker]

I'm considering buying one of these:

 

http://www.shotdeadinthehead.com/get-fish-or-die-tryin-t-shirt-mens.html

[Dales]

Great site Steve, some very nice T-Shirts.

[Elton]

Great site Steve, some very nice T-Shirts.

 

I spent ages going through that site, posting various offensive links on friends' Facebook pages

[Dales]

 

I spent ages going through that site, posting various offensive links on friends' Facebook pages

 

What a great way to pass the time.

[Steve Walker]

Same here!

[garylee]

I like the Cure for "BUM TIT TIT FUKC" Tourette's T Shirt

[RelaxGod]

What a surprise! the 'International Otter Survival Fund' says otters are a good thing.

 

Is this river not flowing the wrong way http://www.otter.org/researchHowToBuildAnOtterHolt.aspx

 

I caught the end of a program about Yellowstone park the other day, it was saying that when wolves numbers increased, with it the otter and beaver population went up. They investigated it and found it to be because the wolves kept the elk numbers down, and kept the herds moving. This in turn allowed more bank side vegetation and trees to grow, this reduced erosion and the silting up of spawning beds, it also increased the amount of invertebrates which the fish feed on.

 

Now the rivers around me have been straightened, dredged and canalised beyond recognition and when it rains it overflows with all manner of rubbish and sewage. The banksides are generally narrow and steep and farmed right up to. There not a natural rivers any more. There are over 400 people per Km2 in England, i wonder how many in yellowstone? and yet elk grazing the river bank made a big difference. What hope have we got? The food chain starts at the bottom.

 

In years to come and the otter population is still growing steadily what could happen. Other than you still get 6 months inside for dispatching one. Are they going to take all the larger fish out, which in turn predate the smaller fish, which would mean less invertebrates and a hell of a lot more weed, due to all the extra nutrients we shove down the river from domestic and agriculture alike.

 

There's plenty more to think about, its no good somebody saying 'we want otters on every river because we used to have them'

 

 

 

 

[garylee]

We used to have bears, lions and wolves reintroduce them and the horse meat problem would be no more.

[gozzer]

RelaxGod, (boy that feels strange, i have spoken to 'God' for half a century)

 

So you don't think that otters should be in our waters? Why? If you look through the past otter threads, you will see that a 'balanced' fishery can cope with otters, they did for thousands of years before we started messing things up.

I wonder if you feel the same way about the mass introduction of 'non native' fish into our waters? Mainly the varieties of carp, that spread like a plague into other waters whenever we have floods? Or even the efffects on the otter population that an over stocked lake/pond can have? If you want to attract birds into your garden, put plenty of food in easy reach, if you want otters to over breed successfully, then provide them with easily caught prey, in large numbers.

 

I'll wait for 'Worms' to find this thread, he can explain it much better than I.

 

John.