Otters at Coatham marsh???

[Richard Green]

Interesting article about Otters on the river stell but unfortunately there is conflict with Anglers.

What to do??






http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/10295151.Otters_have_devastated_our_fish_stock__say_anglers/

[Keith Ryan]

There will always be conflicts with certain anglers, if its not Otters it'll be Cormorants or Herons or whatever.

[StewH]

Another tricky one... We live in a generation which has been affected heavily by ourselves, with low numbers of predators.... be it otters, BOPs, Magpies....  so we have got used to artificially high numbers of prey items because of the lack of predators.  As we right the balance (sometimes artificially by reintroduction) the predator / prey balance needs to sort itself out and we need to trust it will as ultimately, predator numbers are controlled by food supply.  Be it anglers, grouse shooters or whatever, the situation will hopefully return to a natural balance and we / they should learn to accept it.

Carp are only here because we put them here... it's not the otter's fault they like to eat them!

Stew

[Richard Green]

I agree, and if all the fish had been eaten like the anglers claim the Otters would have surely cleared off.

Also freshwater fish tend to lay dormant in winter and do not feed until the weather warms up in about June, then everything suddenly seems to burst into life.

I think otters turning up on our doorstep is an absolute celebration of the diversity of wildlife on Teesside and they should be protected not persecuted.