The Traveller Found Dead?

[zedhead]

slyder, comorants have every right to eat freshwater fish, just like otters and any other native species, comorants wouldnt be eating the freshwater fish stocks if the sea could still support them but weve overfished it!

Anyway, back to the topics title...traveller found dead......who cares? ive got a goldfish called goldy but when it dies is it going to be mourned by the aquaculturing community just because its got a name?

[Slyder]

slyder, comorants have every right to eat freshwater fish, just like otters and any other native species, comorants wouldnt be eating the freshwater fish stocks if the sea could still support them but weve overfished it!

 

We'll have to agree to disagree there. I do take your point, and you're right, but they're still where they shouldn't be. The reason doesn't alter the fact. Any chance i could have an angle for Goldy while it's still alive? I can see it becoming a target fish for many people now you've alerted the world to its presence!

[Tony U]

Can they definitively say that the fish was killed, rather than scavenged by animals?

No of course they cannot; I see Ray Walton was in the weeklies blaming Otters for the death, how does he know? In the end the poor beast probably just died of old age.

 

 

Tony

[badboybubbie]

No, not really. It's not an english species, doesn't belong here, not natural. Has about as much right to freshwater fish as a cormorant...that's zero by the way.

 

You say that comarants ,mink and the like have no right to the fish ,but they are introduced by man for profit .then released by said tree huggers who think they are cruelly kept and comarants would stay at the coast but for mans over exploitation of the sea fish.this is what happens ,THEY HUNT TO SURVIVE WHERE MAN HUNTS FOR PURE PLEASURE.oh and profit.

 

 

 

the bubbie.

[corydoras]

I do take your point, and you're right, but they're still where they shouldn't be.

If your still talking cormorants then you don't know much about the cormorant. The only reason you will find cormorants in fresh water is because they are finding food there. The cormorant is not and never has been exclusively a sea bird.

 

Back to the topic of the post, maybe it was old age, maybe it was poisoned by halibut pellets, maybe an otter, to be honest I have bigger and better things to be worried about.

Edited January 9, 2007 by corydoras

[Steve Walker]

They escaped from mink farms years ago. North American species like the Grey Squirrel.

 

"Escaped"? I seem to recall that thousands of them had more than a little help getting out of the fur farms, courtesy of idiotic animal rights activists. In fact, "were released en masse by misguided criminals" is how I'd put it.

[corydoras]

"Escaped"? I seem to recall that thousands of them had more than a little help getting out of the fur farms, courtesy of idiotic animal rights activists. In fact, "were released en masse by misguided criminals" is how I'd put it.

I agree Steve. That's how the mink down here 'escaped' too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/148420.stm

[Guest Rabbit]

Escaped mostly, the figures were very low for the acitivist released. About 2%. Most got out due to poor security by get rich farmers. May not satisfy a lot of peoples pre-conceptions but facts non the less.

[peter mccue]

Escaped mostly, the figures were very low for the acitivist released. About 2%. Most got out due to poor security by get rich farmers. May not satisfy a lot of peoples pre-conceptions but facts non the less.

 

 

Half agree with you Rabbit, a fair amount of Mink were already in the wild before those shortsighted half baked activists set them free. The population was curtesy of WW2 & the resultant abandonment of Mink farms. 2% seems a very low figure though, where did that figure come from?

 

I would suggest that latter day problems with Mink can be attributed to activists to a far greater extent than 2%. Perhaps all the releases from when they were first brought over here (1920's?) to the present day might get closer to that figure. But then that wouldn't be representative of the modern day problem.

[PBouseR]

I live nearby and have fished this river for 20 years or so (sadly not the expensive bit with all the bigguns!) and have only occasionally seen a mink. However, I met a park ranger who was dead pleased to tell me how well his precious otters are doing. I think the comment in today's AT is probably close to the mark.