Rivers.

[Chris Hammond ( RSPB ACA PAC}]

"Yes the BBC do seem a bit disingenuous when it comes to environmental issues but the programmes name sets the theme; "Britain's Big Wildlife Revival" - With that title it's only ever going to be about feel good tv."

You don't just think that most wildlife enthusiasts are a little blinkered per se then? I'm a lover of all things wild myself, but being at heart primarily a field sportsman -mainly in angling terms- I feel I can distance myself enough from sentiment and accept the truth of environmental issues no matter how unpalatable they might be to the wildlife lover in me.

I believe Hugh's logic is that the otters are under pressure because the cormorants have decimated their natural larder. It makes sense to me. Without adequate fish stocks in our rivers otters are more likely to turn to commercial fisheries and even urban scavenging to supplement their food intake.

Of course, like most of us, he realizes the otter battle is one we cannot win in the eyes of the fur-friendly general public, which makes it an almost impossible issue.

Personally I would not want to see the wonderful creature that the otter is persecuted in the fashion of uninformed eras past, but I can see that an inbalance -at least in the short term- spells disaster for our natural fish stocks. (I'm far less concerned about the commercial ones.)

 

[bennygesserit]

"oooh look an otter thread ! can we keep it ? "

http://www.otter.org/documents/IOSF%20Otters%20and%20Fisheries%20Conference%202012%20Edinburgh.pdf was quite interesting I thought

 

[cg74]

Scroll up to the top of this thread and you will see that, from the start, it was yet another fishing expedition, yet another slightly more oblique attempt to get anglers angry about blahdy otters (and the bunny-hugging BBC that so promotes them) and the way us straight-up blokes get pushed around by a bunch of furry and university-educated ponces.

Yet another from the Cloud Cuckoo Land Crew.

Cloud Cuckoo Land?

The Birds, a 5th Century BC comic-fantasy by the Greek playwright Aristophanes, about two world-weary Athenians, tired of arguing every last thing to the toss, setting up a "perfect" city of the birds in the clouds, well away from the hurly-burly of life on Earth. Much wishful thinking and bird brainery follows.

For more, catch this excellent BBC 4 series - BBC iPlayer - Ancient Greece: The Greatest Show on Earth: Democrats


Sorry, CG, but you have multi-site disruptive "form". Some of us have excellent memories, me being one of them.

Paul, why not restart your hamster diary it summed you up to a tee....

"Sorry, CG, but you have multi-site disruptive "form"."
The irony of that sentence is utterly unbelievable, though you won't see it.

---------- Post added at 20:14 ---------- Previous post was at 19:58 ----------

"Yes the BBC do seem a bit disingenuous when it comes to environmental issues but the programmes name sets the theme; "Britain's Big Wildlife Revival" - With that title it's only ever going to be about feel good tv."

You don't just think that most wildlife enthusiasts are a little blinkered per se then? I'm a lover of all things wild myself, but being at heart primarily a field sportsman -mainly in angling terms- I feel I can distance myself enough from sentiment and accept the truth of environmental issues no matter how unpalatable they might be to the wildlife lover in me.

I believe Hugh's logic is that the otters are under pressure because the cormorants have decimated their natural larder. It makes sense to me. Without adequate fish stocks in our rivers otters are more likely to turn to commercial fisheries and even urban scavenging to supplement their food intake.

Of course, like most of us, he realizes the otter battle is one we cannot win in the eyes of the fur-friendly general public, which makes it an almost impossible issue.

Personally I would not want to see the wonderful creature that the otter is persecuted in the fashion of uninformed eras past, but I can see that an inbalance -at least in the short term- spells disaster for our natural fish stocks. (I'm far less concerned about the commercial ones.)

"Personally I would not want to see the wonderful creature that the otter is persecuted in the fashion of uninformed eras past, but I can see that an inbalance -at least in the short term- spells disaster for our natural fish stocks. (I'm far less concerned about the commercial ones."
That passage pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject.

"You don't just think that most wildlife enthusiasts are a little blinkered per se then?"
Yes most people are blinkered by personal preferences but I do think the BBC should offer a better standard of investigative journalism.

 

[bennygesserit]

Paul, why not restart your hamster diary it summed you up to a tee....

"Sorry, CG, but you have multi-site disruptive "form"."
The irony of that sentence is utterly unbelievable, though you won't see it.

---------- Post added at 20:14 ---------- Previous post was at 19:58 ----------



"Personally I would not want to see the wonderful creature that the otter is persecuted in the fashion of uninformed eras past, but I can see that an inbalance -at least in the short term- spells disaster for our natural fish stocks. (I'm far less concerned about the commercial ones."
That passage pretty much sums up my thoughts on the subject.

"You don't just think that most wildlife enthusiasts are a little blinkered per se then?"
Yes most people are blinkered by personal preferences but I do think the BBC should offer a better standard of investigative journalism.

Colin - how do you get a prey / predator imbalance for a natural animal that is totally native to the British Isles and has been so for millennia , do you feel the same way with Pike , or Kingfishers or Perch ?

 

[cg74]

Colin - how do you get a prey / predator imbalance for a natural animal that is totally native to the British Isles and has been so for millennia , do you feel the same way with Pike , or Kingfishers or Perch ?

Unnatural imbalances occur when people meddle, whether that's increasing predator numbers with introductions/stockings or removals of unwanted species, even accidental kills effect any kind of 'natural balance'.

To many predators leads to few prey species. To few predators leads to a poor gene pool in the prey species; that is a very simplistic view of it all, as when referring to aquatic environments, we humans have such an influence in habitats etc a true balance can never be achieved in many situations.

I have very little bias for or against indigenous predators; I detest perch with a passion, I'm fairly ambivalent in my views of pike, I love seeing kingfishers and otters, well, my opinion is very much the same as with pike.
But I do fully understand the pros and cons of predators and so I can and do see past my personal bias. Take perch, I can't abide them but I accept they're a crucial part of many ecosystems.

 

[Royffey]

I just watched it, basically - save otters, save crayfish, save salmon and maintain the natural habitat for OTTERS ........

 

[Paul Boote]

... as opposed to a few freakishly large chub and barbel that, in many cases, aren't where they are there naturally and, sooner rather than later, unable to breed successfully in the latter case, will be gone - absent from those rivers, as before. Pfff. Gone.

"Oh baby baby, it's a wild world. It's hard to get by just upon a smile."

 

[daji]

The video makes me want to chuck on some waders and take a stroll up my local river