Summer 2002 No. 13

Page 5

FAMILY OF OTTERS KILLED IN ILLEGAL EEL NET

Environment Agency and National Trust staff have been left stunned by the grim discovery of a mother otter and her cubs killed in an illegal eel net in the River Stour. (Newsletter 15: Mother otter is in fact a father.)

The Agency is investigating the deaths and warning that fyke nets must be licensed and are illegal unless fitted with an otter guard. Additionally the landowners’ permission must be gained before a net can be set.

The badly decomposed bodies were found by a National Trust warden on the Kingston Lacey estate near Wimborne Minster. It was very close to an otter holt that was specially built on the river by the Dorset Wildlife Trust four years ago to attract the elusive creatures.

The fyke net – a tubular series of narrowing chambers used to trap eels - was not licensed or fitted with an otter guard. It is thought the net may have drifted downstream to its final location and that the otters have been dead for about a month.

“This was an horrific and sad discovery of a mother otter and her two cubs who have drowned as they tried to disentangle themselves from the net after going in to feed on the eels,” explained Emma Rothero for the Environment Agency.

“Eels are a key part of the otter’s diet and special guards must be fitted to these nets to stop them getting trapped. We provide free otter guards for every net we licence to try to prevent this sort of tragedy.”

Anyone who sees a dead otter (ask for Sandy Moores), or an unlicensed or unguarded fyke net (ask for Stuart Kingston-Turner) anywhere should report it to the Environment Agency on:

0800 80 70 60.

Bridget Norris
Environment Agency

The dead otter and her cubs were discovered last April. It has not been possible for the Environment Agency to discover the owner of the net. The Agency licences very few fyke nets on Dorset's rivers (less than a dozen each year) although large numbers of commercial licences are issued for more open waters around Poole Harbour and elsewhere. Fortunately, there is evidence that the number of illegal nets being used is gradually declining but as this episode has shown it takes just one for a tragic incident like this to happen.

Otters trapped in this way die by drowning as they cannot breath underwater for more than a few minutes.

The type of eel net used on rivers is usually no more than 2 metres long and up to 40 cm. wide at the mouth. The otter guard, if it is fitted, is a square of rigid plastic which prevents an otter swimming into the net. Licensed nets are clearly identified with a plastic tag (the colour of which is changed each year) and this is marked with a reference code consisting of numbers and letters which identifies the owner. SO KEEP A LOOK OUT FOR NETS WHICH DO NOT HAVE A TAG OR AN OTTER GUARD.

Peter Irvine

Fyke net and otter guard