Regarded as one of the great conservation successes, otters have made a return in areas where once they were extinct. But their comeback hasn’t been welcomed by everyone, as Stuart Arnold reports

WHO wouldn’t admire an otter?

These beautiful, sleek creatures are regarded as shy and secretive and their mere presence has been known to inspire wonderment among nature lovers.

A protected species under the law, their return is evidence that efforts to clean up rivers and watercourses previously polluted with pesticides have been successful.

A number of conservation projects have also helped re-establish them. So what’s the problem, you might ask?

Well as top predators in the marine food chain, otters are free to catch and eat as many fish as they want – and they’re pretty good at it.

That has brought them into conflict with many of the region’s anglers.

The Northern Echo has seen a steady flow of complaints from anglers who claim they are seeing a dramatic reduction in fish and want something done to manage the otter population.

And it’s not just anglers whose wrath otters have incurred.

Earlier this year, some residents living in Durham complained that an otter was raiding garden ponds, stealing thousands of poundsworth of fish, including valuable koi carp.

David Oxley, a secretary of the Lower Tees Angling Association and treasurer of the Thornaby Angling Association, who has been fishing for more than 40 years, claims the devastation to fishing stocks has reached crisis point.

“I see the day when there will be nobody on the riverbanks other than walkers, because there won’t be any fish left,” he says.

“I am not suggesting a cull, nobody wants that.

“But otters are monstrosities when it comes to killing and their numbers aren’t being managed.

They are running amok and their population is far higher than people would have you believe.

“We have match results going back years and you can map the decline in the big fish population.”

In February a fish farmer in Wales who launched a legal claim against the Environment Agency over the impact of otters on his business lost a £2m compensation bid after claiming the agency was partly to blame.

Despite this, Mr Oxley says wildlife trusts and others who have encouraged the spread of otters should be held to account.

“For too the long, the fervour surrounding otters and their re-introduction has gone unchecked and it is time for common sense and reflection to return,” he says.

“We have ponds at Gilling West in North Yorkshire and we find fish carcasses and otter tracks all over the place.

“We have invested more than £66,000 in fish stocks and they have gone already. Before we can put any more fish in, we are having to find about £20,000 to put up otter-proof fencing.

“Of course there is no protection at all for rivers and canals.

“We are only an angling club and it’s not money we can really afford.”

Dr Vivien Kent is an otter project officer with the Durham Wildlife Trust.

FOR the past three years, the trust has been supporting a project whose aim is to restore the otter’s natural habitat and facilitate its return to the catchments of the Tyne, Wear, Tees and their tributaries.

“Otters are merely returning to areas where they have been extinct for the past 30 years due to pollution and persecution,” says Dr Kent.

She says she cannot agree with the premise that the otter is helping to devastate fish stocks.

“The otter only lives at a level that the fish population can support,” she says.

“Their population is completely governed by the food resource out there.

“Their extremely territorial nature and requirement for large areas of habitat also means that the otter population will never be that great.

“It is not in the interests of an otter to exhaust the supply of prey – it would starve.

“The balance of nature is being restored here, it hasn’t tipped over in favour of the otter.

“We should celebrate that as it is an indicator of the health of our watercourses, which has benefits across the entire eco-system.”

She admits there is an issue with private fisheries, but says both fishing and wildlife interests should be working together to devise effective fencing schemes for them, and lobbying Government for the resources needed.

“Stillwater fisheries have no refuges for fish to hide and are not natural habitats,” she says.

“So it is quite possible they will suffer losses from otters, but those would be the ones that do not have otter-proof fencing.

“A one-off capital expenditure on fencing to protect a greater sum invested in a stock of fish makes economic sense.”

DR Kent says the only alternative to living with otters is to wipe them out, but says this is surely something most people would find abhorrent.

According to the Environment Agency, controlling otter numbers through culling is not an option “unless in exceptional circumstances, and all other alternatives have been exhausted”.

The agency says it does take concerns about otter predation seriously and continues to look at ways to address anglers’ concerns, in conjunction with organisations such as the Angling Trust and Natural England.

It is also working closely with fishery owners to help protect their stocks from predators where it can and has put aside money received from rod licence funds to help install otterproof fencing where it is needed.

Five such projects have been funded in the Tees area since 2010.

“Contrary to popular opinion, no captivebred otters have been released since 1999 and none were ever released in the North-East,” a spokeswoman adds.

“The vast majority of otters in England and Wales are the result of natural re-colonisation.”