Fellow pond geeks,
Our little pond with the lighthouse now has otter problems. Some people tried to convince me that was an honor, but I'm not so sure. There is a pile of fish scales on the banks of a tiny little pond nearby and what looks like a burrow nearby. I haven't found any bass heads yet, but we found a large bowfin skull and some catfish heads near the burrow. And one otter was captured on video eating a catfish. So who knows how many fish they have eaten. And there's a family of three that I have seen.
After reading some post on this forum about otters, we decides to shoot near them. So I just scared the crap (literally) out of the whole family recently.
We also excavated what looked like their burrow. But one has already returned... now more warily.
Ideally, I'd love to have both otters and a decent fish population. After all, they are lot like us - playful and overzealous sometimes. I read somewhere else that adding structure to your pond will deter otter predation somewhat. So I looked up otter fencing and I found some specs on a structure that would keep otters out. Apparently, they don't climb or dig very well. The article showed a 5' fence (1' in the ground) with vinyl coated, welded wire mesh with 2x4" openings. Making a fence around the entire pond would keep out the otters entirely. But that would cost a lot of money at 950 feet of fencing and posts. So a cheap alternative is buying 50-100' sections to make circular pins placed in the pond extending from the bottom to about 1 foot above the water surface. This may deter the otters somewhat. How much, I don't know.
The mesh size of the fence would allow passage of some decent sized fish. And I'm not too concerned about having really big fish in the pond. So maybe the otters could be management tool.
Have you'll heard anything about otter exclosures like these or some other kind? I wonder how they will restructure the fish community.
Best regards,
SC
