Firstly, I would like to point out that I am a great lover of wildlife. This is one of the reasons I love fishing as much I do. You can also get to see so much that the rest of the world will never see.
Good –
When it was nearly impossible to see an otter in the wild, it was a treat to see the odd one or two (this small number of otters kept river in balance – killed diseased fish in the river and stopped a slow death for the local wildlife). A natural gamekeeper if you would.
Bad –
There are 2 real issues here.
Firstly; The unofficial releasing of otters (which has been done in great numbers), what are the otters supposed to eat when they run out of fish? The not so public knowledge, is that they eat! They will eat anything – eggs, chicks, even fully grown birds, they even been known to kill of all the bird’s on a lake that had no fish, because they had eaten them already! On my friend’s lake, every year they killed the signets and one year even the cob (swan)! This stopped, once they put an otter fence round the lake. This however, has pushed the otters into taking fish from local ornimental ponds within people’s gardens.
The Second issue, are the areas of the county the unofficial releases are happening. Now, we all know that mostly otters live in rivers, not great big deep reservoir and over populated areas. A dog otter and his family covers an area of some 5 miles. If you keep introducing otter after otter into the same area, they will just move on and fill up another areas – nobody likes a conflict with their neighbour! However, the people who are doing the releases think that someone or something has killed them, so they just keep releasing more and more until that area is over populated – again and then they move on again. And once there is no more fish or any wildlife left. These otters too will move on. If no action is taken soon, it will become the hard truth.Links-
http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/27441
http://www.fishingmagic.com/news_events/news/16626-otters-the-bbc-and-the-angling-trust.html
http://www.otterstop.co.uk/otters-now-responsible-for-deaths-of-rarebirds/
Please stop intrducing more otters, otherwise, there will be no more fish or bird and starving otters
Richard
UK Carp & Coarse Fishing 