It will never be open season on otters - Keith Arthur

While I have enormous sympathy for those whose businesses have been impacted by the increase in otter numbers, and applaud their new initiative, I fear the Fish Protection Bureau will fail.

The group’s leader, eminent carp farmer Mark Simmonds, mentions ‘farmers’ rights’ to protect stocks, probably referring to the myth that dogs attacking sheep can be shot or injured. That isn’t the case. Farmers injuring dogs are responsible for that dog’s injuries by law, even if the dog was loose and trespassing. Of course, a court may look on individual cases sympathetically, but the dog’s owner could sue. Equally, dog owners bear the responsibility for their animals’ actions and could well be forced to pay compensation for any losses.

The main difference between dogs and otters is that dogs aren’t wild. Foxes are and, of course, farmers can and would be expected to take lethal action against them. However, foxes are not protected to the same level otters are - the highest form of protection available - because they are not and never have been critically endangered. And remember fish farmers can’t shoot cormorants or goosander without a license for a given number of birds.

The best tactic, in my opinion, is to get real expert advice - and that costs money and takes time - on actual numbers of otters in specific areas and prove that there are too many for the otters’ own good.

What has to be remembered, however, is that most of the businesses and fish being affected worst didn’t exist when otters were added to the protected list of species in 1981 and they had been in serious decline for many years before that. As with cormorants and many other species, protection can be too effective.

But please, as an angler, don’t campaign for otters to die and zander to live. That’s hypocrisy of the highest order.