Martin Salter, Labour’s angling spokeman in 2010, said ‘their
numbers have been artificially boosted by a release programme that took no
notice of the available food source.’
Many anglers are, understandably, angry about the otter’s
population rise and the corresponding decline of fish. Not only is it bad for
fishing, which anglers pay a yearly fee to the Environmental Agency for, but it
is also bad for the biodiversity of Britain’s water ecosystems. Also, fisheries
and angling clubs across the country have gone out of business, with the
predators causing economic losses of over £80,000 in stocks of fish alone.
There is a petition for the culling of otters to the Department
for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The link can be found below:
However, perhaps the correct response should not be to cull
them. Instead, the Wildlife Trust could re-house otters into more sustainable
areas, where the fish population can support Britain’s largest wild carnivore. At
the same time, as Paul Wilkinson, of the Wildlife Trust, said, ‘solutions to
fisheries predation can be found, such as otter-proof fencing.’ With measures
such as this, as well as the re-location of otters from over-populated areas,
the Environmental Agency could maintain the popular sport of coarse fishing as
well as sustaining a small but healthy population of otters, which are also a
much-loved mammal and countryside character when people see them break the surface of our rivers.
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