M
MarkTheSpark
Guest
I just cannot let this BS pass without mention.
"The returning otter population has, at times, decimated the Stocks of specimen fish in some fisheries. But ?250,000 a year to protect the interests of 2 million anglers has in the past been impossible to find!
Specimen carp are particularly vulnerable, but pike, big eels and tench are taken by the otters as well. Some fisheries have been ruined by such predation, and there is enormous frustration brewing from anglers who fish such waters, as they have been unable to do anything. Otters are fully protected by law; they may not be moved, disturbed or harmed in any way, whatsoever."
Errr, what? Precisely which 'specimen fish' have otters been 'decimating'? (The latter word meaning, to define it properly, reducing by one tenth). 20lb pike? 6lb eels? 7lb tench? Or 40lb carp and 10lb stillwater barbel?
It's absolute rubbish that fisheries have been 'ruined' by otter predation - but that there were enough otters. Have you seen one recently? Can you remember mink being accused (though we've all seen a few of those).
And which anglers are brewing up for a confrontation? Anybody on FM ever mentioned it? And commercial fisheries lacking, between them, at ?10 a day or more, the ?250,000 a lifetime they need for 'otter-proof fencing' whatever that is? Or too stingy to pay for anything but .410 shells?
Am I alone in being able to spare a few average eels and tench, and a whole lot of pasties, to see the occasional otter on the bank? You know, that large mammal shot on sight by riverkeepers for 200 years of persecution, and hunted to the brink of extinction by dogs?
"The returning otter population has, at times, decimated the Stocks of specimen fish in some fisheries. But ?250,000 a year to protect the interests of 2 million anglers has in the past been impossible to find!
Specimen carp are particularly vulnerable, but pike, big eels and tench are taken by the otters as well. Some fisheries have been ruined by such predation, and there is enormous frustration brewing from anglers who fish such waters, as they have been unable to do anything. Otters are fully protected by law; they may not be moved, disturbed or harmed in any way, whatsoever."
Errr, what? Precisely which 'specimen fish' have otters been 'decimating'? (The latter word meaning, to define it properly, reducing by one tenth). 20lb pike? 6lb eels? 7lb tench? Or 40lb carp and 10lb stillwater barbel?
It's absolute rubbish that fisheries have been 'ruined' by otter predation - but that there were enough otters. Have you seen one recently? Can you remember mink being accused (though we've all seen a few of those).
And which anglers are brewing up for a confrontation? Anybody on FM ever mentioned it? And commercial fisheries lacking, between them, at ?10 a day or more, the ?250,000 a lifetime they need for 'otter-proof fencing' whatever that is? Or too stingy to pay for anything but .410 shells?
Am I alone in being able to spare a few average eels and tench, and a whole lot of pasties, to see the occasional otter on the bank? You know, that large mammal shot on sight by riverkeepers for 200 years of persecution, and hunted to the brink of extinction by dogs?