richard bowler
Active member
- Joined
- Oct 27, 2011
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iceman22
Re: Otters – Action at Last?
While I understand the over of fishing of eels has had an effect on the population however I have heard 2 things , one that the saragaso is full of eels not returning here the other is that there may be a parasite problem , what the cuddly otter lovers aint told anyone is when they cant find fish they will eat anything , including the protected water vole , any water fowl they can get hold of and even small children ( only joking they only give children a nasty nip )
To my understanding our freshwater eel now suffers from a parasitic fluke that affects it's swim bladder, while it can survive in freshwater with this, on it's return to the Sargasso sea it sinks into the abyss on passing the continental shelve. Eel populations are now down by 95%.
When my brother was getting involved with the Angling Trust I spent quite a few hours researching otter predation on the internet. It's main diet consist's of freshwater eel and silver fish in the 4-6 inch bracket, exactly what is missing from our rivers. One research I came across was the collection of otter spraints from a nature reserve in Somerset ( I've tried to find it this morning but haven't been successful ). The spraints were collected from the 1980 onwards, what made interesting reading was the fact that in the 80's and 90's no more than 10% of spraints contained water bird feathers around 2000 this figure went up to over 40% this they put down to the decline in eel numbers.
The fact still remains that the introduction of the otter only proved to highlight an underlying problem. Even if otters were culled this wouldn't help with fish recruitment, it wouldn't help with over abstraction , with pollution. With the otter in place as the publics favourite more pressure will be put on the EA to improve the freshwater environment as one things for sure it won't take long for the apex predator to start to disappear from a failing river system. It's disappearance will also be a lot more visible to the general public than that of our fish. If our river environment is not put right do you think people like the RSPB will not notice Bitterns , water rail ect disappearing, bringing people like this into the fight will have a lot more impact than a group of anglers asking to kill animals so they can catch fish.
All the best
Richard
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Re: Otters – Action at Last?
While I understand the over of fishing of eels has had an effect on the population however I have heard 2 things , one that the saragaso is full of eels not returning here the other is that there may be a parasite problem , what the cuddly otter lovers aint told anyone is when they cant find fish they will eat anything , including the protected water vole , any water fowl they can get hold of and even small children ( only joking they only give children a nasty nip )
To my understanding our freshwater eel now suffers from a parasitic fluke that affects it's swim bladder, while it can survive in freshwater with this, on it's return to the Sargasso sea it sinks into the abyss on passing the continental shelve. Eel populations are now down by 95%.
When my brother was getting involved with the Angling Trust I spent quite a few hours researching otter predation on the internet. It's main diet consist's of freshwater eel and silver fish in the 4-6 inch bracket, exactly what is missing from our rivers. One research I came across was the collection of otter spraints from a nature reserve in Somerset ( I've tried to find it this morning but haven't been successful ). The spraints were collected from the 1980 onwards, what made interesting reading was the fact that in the 80's and 90's no more than 10% of spraints contained water bird feathers around 2000 this figure went up to over 40% this they put down to the decline in eel numbers.
The fact still remains that the introduction of the otter only proved to highlight an underlying problem. Even if otters were culled this wouldn't help with fish recruitment, it wouldn't help with over abstraction , with pollution. With the otter in place as the publics favourite more pressure will be put on the EA to improve the freshwater environment as one things for sure it won't take long for the apex predator to start to disappear from a failing river system. It's disappearance will also be a lot more visible to the general public than that of our fish. If our river environment is not put right do you think people like the RSPB will not notice Bitterns , water rail ect disappearing, bringing people like this into the fight will have a lot more impact than a group of anglers asking to kill animals so they can catch fish.
All the best
Richard
- Home