Otters eating pet fish!

[Beretta V]

Wiltshire Police say otters are killing expensive pet fish

Corsham Police force suggests people use either welded mesh to cover the pond or erect a wire fence.

www.bbc.co.uk

I’m surprised that this hasn’t been in the press before!

Yes we like wildlife and yes we need everything to make the circle of life but surely when the countryside was managed by people who are born and bred in the countryside there was proper control.

I live near a nature reserve and I actually see more vermin than anything else.
Surely magpies, crows, squirrels, foxes to name a few need to be managed.

Low hedgehog numbers but high badgers.
Eell almost missing from rivers but plenty of otters.

It all has effects.
Who else agrees?

 

[levigsp]

O)ld news I know of at least 3 villages where all pet fish, koi etc were wiped out by otters.
its been going on for some time.

 

[Beretta V]

O)ld news I know of at least 3 villages where all pet fish, koi etc were wiped out by otters.
its been going on for some time.

It’s been going on for years. Only have to look at the fisheries that have fenced their waters off!
Just means the otters go to easier options for a meal

 

[Apthorpe]

I can't work out what the Police think a cattle fence looks like, or why they think it would keep otters out:
"Otherwise a wire fence similar to that used for cattle which consists of a single wire around the pond supported about 4ft" from the ground."
WTF is that supposed to mean?

 

[Bowland blades]

All nine Koi , most big fish 20 lb class - Gone! one night only the heads munched a bit . That will be an otter mum teaching the Pups but it was still rather annoying these fish where very tame and i can no longer keep any pond has been empty a good few years now

 

[sh1kar]

Does electric fencing not stop them? Keeps the badgers off my strawberries

S

 

[VSS]

I'd far rather have otters at the bottom of my garden than an ornamental pond stocked with pet fish! Otters are welcome in my little stretch of stream anytime. Haven't seen one yet, but they have been seen nearby so I live in hope.

 

[Beretta V]

All nine Koi , most big fish 20 lb class - Gone! one night only the heads munched a bit . That will be an otter mum teaching the Pups but it was still rather annoying these fish where very tame and i can no longer keep any pond has been empty a good few years now

30 years ago there was a guy who had 2 lakes fenced off around his perimeter and also an inner fence in the margins so herons couldn’t get to his fish.
I use to fish 6 lakes beside his and they got pestered by cormorant and herons. Unfortunately I don’t live in the area now but I bet the lakes have been pressured by otters and mink as I know they are all over Ardleigh reservoir and it’s not silly far from there.
We should be able to protect our stock just like farmers. I know commercial fisheries were allowed to control cormorant to an extent

 

[Bowland blades]

30 years ago there was a guy who had 2 lakes fenced off around his perimeter and also an inner fence in the margins so herons couldn’t get to his fish.
I use to fish 6 lakes beside his and they got pestered by cormorant and herons. Unfortunately I don’t live in the area now but I bet the lakes have been pressured by otters and mink as I know they are all over Ardleigh reservoir and it’s not silly far from there.
We should be able to protect our stock just like farmers. I know commercial fisheries were allowed to control cormorant to an extent

to protect none native , domestic fish ? not a chance ! i have done legal Cormorant control under licence in the past while a river keeper , cant put the two together as they say inland cormorant are actually none native while Salmon , seatrout and Brown trout. are 100% native.

 

[Beretta V]

I'd far rather have otters at the bottom of my garden than an ornamental pond stocked with pet fish! Otters are welcome in my little stretch of stream anytime. Haven't seen one yet, but they have been seen nearby so I live in hope.

Say goodbye to good stocks in your stream

 

[csl]

I'd far rather have otters at the bottom of my garden than an ornamental pond stocked with pet fish! Otters are welcome in my little stretch of stream anytime. Haven't seen one yet, but they have been seen nearby so I live in hope.

They do tend to be... entire wastrels of fish though. So you won't see any otters, unless your lucky, and you won't see any live fish either. Where you've got salmon entering the river it's fascinating watching the otters, but they do end up biting the top/back of their head and leaving them, but that's salmon. It's not so easy with other breeds or fish in captivity.

 

[Henns]

I'd far rather have otters at the bottom of my garden than an ornamental pond stocked with pet fish! Otters are welcome in my little stretch of stream anytime. Haven't seen one yet, but they have been seen nearby so I live in hope.

Be careful what you wish for! They've devastated a lot of southern rivers, which were already under pressure from crayfish, cormorants and declining water quality.

 

[VSS]

Be careful what you wish for! They've devastated a lot of southern rivers, which were already under pressure from crayfish, cormorants and declining water quality.

The crayfish and the water quality are the issues that need dealing with. Otters and cormorants belong.

 

[Bo Diddley]

They have been causing havoc in Norfolk for decades with fish stocks and any other wildlife they can catch, swan muscles, wildfowl, domestic fowl, young pheasant & partridge poults, anything they can get their teeth into, favorites are eels swan muscles, and moorhens, all were common around here before the otters were turned loose. The amazing thing is folks very rarely see one in the flesh, I'm a keen fisherman at times, spending hours on the bankside, and I've been up close and personal about 6 times in the last 10 years, still Cris Packman loves the blasted things so I suppose his army of luvvies will win the day in the end....

 

[VSS]

Say goodbye to good stocks in your stream

Otter is welcome to anything it can find in my stream. The appearance of an otter would be indicative of a healthy ecosystem.

 

[Beretta V]

The crayfish and the water quality are the issues that need dealing with. Otters and cormorants belong.

Moderation is the key. Too many of things higher up the chain ends in tears

 

[Henns]

The crayfish and the water quality are the issues that need dealing with. Otters and cormorants belong.

I see cormorants as a sea bird, no place at all in a clear flowing chalksteam where they hammer the small and medium sized fish. Otters might have had a place 60 years ago, but the environment and fish stocks aren't what they were and can no longer support an apex predator. People used to control them for good reason.

 

[VSS]

Moderation is the key. Too many of things higher up the chain ends in tears

Yes, that is true, but the non-natives ought to be dealt with first. Otters, like their relatives the badgers, are making a comeback after having dropped to perilously low levels about 50 years ago. But whereas badgers have been hugely successful, and probably are in sufficient numbers to justify control, otters aren't there yet. Water quality is still in issue that's holding them back, and water quality also has a negative impact on fish stocks. The two go hand in hand. So, let's worry about water quality first and foremost, which will benefit both fish and otters, and also let's deal with the invasive species. Then we can worry about whether the balance is right.

 

[paul o']

 

[Beretta V]

Yes, that is true, but the non-natives ought to be dealt with first. Otters, like their relatives the badgers, are making a comeback after having dropped to perilously low levels about 50 years ago. But whereas badgers have been hugely successful, and probably are in sufficient numbers to justify control, otters aren't there yet. Water quality is still in issue that's holding them back, and water quality also has a negative impact on fish stocks. The two go hand in hand. So, let's worry about water quality first and foremost, which will benefit both fish and otters, and also let's deal with the invasive species. Then we can worry about whether the balance is right.

The balance will never be correct. Always peaks and troughs.
While there are invasive species coming in and people like Packham there will never be any control.