Otters were on a steep decline in the 70's and 80's which was thought to be connected to leaching of agricultural pesticides which entered the aquatic food chain and poisoning predatory species.
It's fair to say that the protection and reintroduction of Otters in territories across the UK has been incredibly successful, at the expense of some of the countries most specimen fish species. 15 years ago an Otter fence was relatively uncommon, and an Otter sighting even more rare in many parts of the country. Today you stand a good chance of having an Otter encounter in almost all counties.
At the rate Otter sightings are being reported in certain parts of the country, there's a clear trend in which these numbers are heading. Daylight sightings are more and more common as they become more brazen around us.
An Otter fence is a crucial measure for any fishery business, even if you're lucky enough to not have Otters in your area currently, it's just a matter of time. Fenced fisheries concentrate these growing numbers of Otters into unfenced territories, depleting the stocks over time. We will see more fences challenged as Otters become more desperate to find that easy meal that's becoming increasingly hard to find in the wild with the accelerating competition.
Whilst it's great to see a species bounce back so successfully, it's a sad story for specimen river angling and forces naturally beautiful stillwater to erect a costly and unsightly boundary that will need constant maintenance to function whilst Otters become wise to overcoming the obstacle.
Please share any footage or stories that you have. As an industry we need to document the impact of this species on the wider aquatic ecosystem.
25 мар 2023
