Yesterday the story of a garden pond in Norfolk that had been raided by an otter hit the a BBC News and a few weeks ago there was the former fishery owner trying to sue the environment agency for £2.5 millon! because otter ate his fish. Both of these stories hardly left the otters in a good light, but a closer look left me with some questions.
In the case of an Otter eating ‘£10,000-worth of pond fish in Thetford’ there are some interesting Headlines:
Killer otter devastates Thetford couple after killing scores of their prize fish – EDP24
Distraught couple forced to remove 6,000 gallon pond from their garden after hungry otter ate 200 prized fish worth £10,000 – Daily Mail
What a r-otter: Killer pest eats £10,000 prize carp from couple’s pond – Daily Mirror
While on holiday an otter had come into their garden and eaten their pond fish which included some large and old Koi and ghost carp which were worth over £10,000, according to owners of the pond. It seems it was an idylic scene before the otter arrived, to quote Mrs Brown in the Daily Mail
‘People would come and bring their children to see all the fish and the wildlife. It was devastating for us because they were so beautiful and had been a part of our life for 25 years.
‘We had a good fence around the pond, a net over the top, but there is no way you could stop an otter getting in.
That last sentence is interesting because if you look at the photo below the quote, that fence certainly doesn’t look otter proof. If you look at the photo in this link, you can see a fence with netting: ITV NEWS Hard to call that a “good fence.” Mr Browns statement “…there is no way you could stop an otter” seems somewhat erroneous, as a fence without holes wider than an otter might have been worth a try….
The BBC News article mentions that they had now remaining removed the remaining fish and were going to fill in the pond. This struck me as strange so I googled around and found and article on EDP24 stating the couple were “heartbroken” which is why they had to fill the pond in. (Note the fence and the sad couple in front of a drained pond for dramatic effect). What confused me about the filling in of the pond was this statement from the BBC News article:
“We used to have four foot grass snakes, adders, lizards, newts, kingfishers, ducks and loads of wildlife come to the pond, but now we’ll never see those again.”
If they like that wildlife so much why not convert the pond into a wildlife pond? In fact one of the main recommendation for a wildlife pond is: no fish!
The full quote on EDP24 reveals more though:
“We will not see the same wildlife visiting our garden any more because we are not giving the otter another chance to kill or mutilate any more fish.
“We will miss the ducks visiting our pond, the kingfishers sitting on the fence, the heron, standing on the decking and the dragonflies, frogs, newts, snakes and many others who come to our pond. So much for someone’s wonderful idea of reintroducing otters into the rivers so we can see more wildlife.
“It won’t be in our garden now and maybe others gardens after the otter has visited their ponds.”
So otters ate their fish and now all the wildlife will pay the price….
The Bury Free Press article suggests that the environment agency has money for otter proof fencing. Mrs Brown is reported to have said
The Environment Agency is sitting on a big pot of cash which should be used to protect ponds like ours.
“We didn’t know about this and haven’t seen it advertised anywhere and it’s taken an otter to destroy our pond for us to find out about it.
“We have nets and things for child safety and to stop animals getting in but it wouldn’t stop an otter. We need proper protection.
“Otters are cute, they really are, especially when they are lying on their backs and playing with the fish.’
‘But I feel the people who released these otters back into the Norfolk rivers haven’t looked into this enough.
Unfortunately for Private pond owners, there isn’t a vast pot of tax payer money for private pond owners to pay for otter fencing to protect their pets. There is a pot of money to help with the costs for otter fencing, but this is for fisheries open to the public. Mrs Brown also mentions the nets and fence “wouldn’t stop an otter…we need proper protection” It is sad that they seem to have money for a long trip in New Zealand and for loads of expensive fish, but when it comes to otter proof fencing, they can’t afford it unless the Environment Agency (out of Tax payers money) pay for it and yet the otter gets the blame.
Looking at this article, sadly it looks like they’ve filled in the pond. Full points to the photographer in this one though portraying the sad couple in front of the former glorious pond now filled with soil and rubble. Still as long as it stops that evil otter feeding that what counts I guess!
As for the otter reintroductions, these seems to get brought up in every otter story, usually without anyone checking the facts. Many people seem to think that otters were and are being reintroduced in great numbers, which is why they are ‘invading’ fisheries and garden ponds. The facts are very different. By 1970 otters had drastically declined and become extinct over much of England and parts of Scotland and Wales. They did start to recover across some of the country, but in the East of England there were no signs of this. So between 1984 and 1997 the Otter Trust released 117 captive-bred otters. A Further 49 rehabilitated animals were released by the Vincent Wildlife Trust, mostly in Yorkshire between 1990 and 1996. That is a total of 168 animals. Hardly the masses many claim and none have be reintroduced since 1999, as the otter were recolonising well enough on their own. To quote the Environment agency:
…descendants of the released otters form only a tiny proportion of the otter population of England, and most wild otters are the result of the natural recovery of the species after the banning of toxic pesticides.
What it comes down to in the end is people are stocking these pond with unnaturally high levels of often non native or ornamental fish with no where for them to hide in the lakes/ponds and with no protection. Otters are wild animals and if they see easy prey they are going to take it. Why I sympathise with those loosing fish, which can’t be easy, whether its pets or livelihoods at stake, leaving an over stocked (by which I mean unnaturally high levels of fish) lake or pond unprotected and blaming the otter is like leaving a plate of chocolate biscuits unguarded in a nursery and blaming the children when they eat them!
Still I doubt it will stop some calling for a cull….
good post Neil. Makes you mad doesn’t it.
Excellent post. They should be restocking their blasted pond with common carp and enjoying the otter. Yet again lazy and irresponsible reporting in the media leaves this dubious pair unchallenged and a local otter potentially at threat.
Is that restock the blasted pond with common carp so the blasted otter can eat those also? You just demonstrate a total lack of understanding of different peoples issues and points of view. These people lost what was their pride and joy not to mention a great deal of money and wasted time. You could at the very least attempt to show some understanding rather than total ignorance.
The releasing of otters back in to the environment was and still is a good idea. However it has not been managed at all and it is not helped by the blindness of people like yourself.
I’m not sure if this comment is directed at me or one of the other commenters, but if you read the whole post I mention the fact they just filled in the pond and invited the papers round. No mention is made in the press of them trying any decent fencing to protect their ‘pride and joy,’ which surely would have been worth trying at least, rather than just giving up and filling in the pond? The whole thing just strikes me as odd. I sympathise with them that they lost some treasured fish, but Im just confused by their actions and the obvious inaccuracies and over dramatic tone of the writing and photos in the papers, which is what I was getting at in this post.
I’m not sure what you are getting at by saying otter releases have not been managed, there were not that many released and none for years now and it was all over seen by the EA at the time.
Great investigating Neil, not that I can see the rest of the garden, but it looks all very urban for such an array of species!
Good post Neil, but some clarifications might be necessary I think (as you are keen to mention “facts”).
1 – The majority of permanently-wet ponds (this is PONDS not lakes) are entirely unnatural (ie they’re man-made and kept artificially wet all year round for years if not decades) – whether they have fish (native or non native) or not.
You are keen to point out “overstocking” being unnatural – but you’re missing the point – ANY piscine stock added AT ALL – ie just one fish added… is by definition unnatural.
But then again, the permanent pond itself is probably “unnatural”.
What I’m trying to say that ONE fish (be it a native stickleback or a goldfish or a trout) in a permanent pond – is almost certainly unnatural, (there’s no such thing as “overstocking”) and fish don’t tend to live in ponds – whether naturally or not.
Piscine habitat generally is rivers, estuaries, streams, lakes and oceans as I’m sure you know. Not that many “wild pond fish” in the world.
So this a double or treble whammy of “unnaturalness” (not just the fact that you think they are “overstocked”).
2 – You mention the EA alongside “taxpayers money” twice. Any speed readers visiting your blog might get the impression by this simplification, that the EA is soley-funded by taxpayers money. This is incorrect of course.
Fair point on the tax payer money, I should have mentioned that fishing license money does contribute around £25million to the pot, but at least some of this fencing money is coming direct from tax payers.
Regarding the ‘unnatural levels’ I mean levels above naturally what the pond can support. You are indeed correct to point out that ponds naturally do not have any fish, but what I mean by unntural is situation were the ponds are so highly populated that aquatic vegetation that provides cover is lost and they are supported by food supplied by humans.
Around three weeks ago I had twelve carp in my front mill pond and a brown trout, the carp ranged from 5 lb to 20 lb and the trout was around 3 lb. The 20 lb carp took around 14 years to grow to 20 lb. Otter or otters entered the pond and carried off all of the smaller carp and left the 20 pounder with large bite marks, the carp took around a week to die. The pond is fenced but the Otters entered through a 250mm diameter outlet pipe. Mink have been a bit of a problem over the years but otters are far worse, I for one look forward to the day when they are very much a rare sight again. For any wise remarks about fencing not adequate and should have fitted grid to pipe end, the fence is 1.2m high and the outlet pipe cannot be covered at this time of the year due to large amounts of falling leaves.
Not quite sure what you expect me to say here. Perhaps you want me to react angrily to the “I for one look forward to the day when they are very much a rare sight again”?
Hello Neil. We have otters on the Warwickshire Avon, here in Pershore, Worcestershire. I was delighted when I first saw one a couple of years ago. However, now that all the waterfowl have been killed and the fish population has diminished so much that the anglers, including the cormorants, are deserting, the river is a barren and distressing sight. It looks as though it must be polluted. I have found five swans dragged to the banks and had their stomachs ripped out. Numerous amounts of mallard and moorhen carcasses were seen. Not any longer though. Everything has gone. I have taken to observing the river Severn and this is rapidly going the same way. It isn’t just fish the otters eat, it is anything that moves. Including water voles and grass snakes
So how did all these species survive side by side for millions of years? Until we wiped them out in the 60s otters were found across the UK and they are simply recolonising. They are top predators in a river ecosystem and doing what they do, which helps keep it healthy. It is basic ecology.
Mink, crayfish and carp are doing far more damage than native otters and the biggest culprit is water pollution, which despite claims the the contrary has not improved sufficiently in any river in England to hold 50% of the invert species they should. In fact the cleanest rivers have got dirtier.
Anglers do a lot to help maintaining our water bodies but this demonising and exaggeration of otter damage just distracts from the real problems. A quick google shows the Warwickshire Avon has plenty of signal crayfish for example