Natural mortalities do effect the populations of fish and is something that I experienced at my pond. It is hard to determine how much they effect the pond but they do effect it. Over the past 6 yrs I have had at least 7 or 8 otters that showed up at different times and it might take days before you see they are there. I did find fish bones and fish scales along with scatt where the otters dined. And the Osprey that shows up every year, i have seen it carry off some pretty good sized cnbg. Then there is the Bald Eagle that shows up and stays around for a while. They can easily carry off a 5 lb lmb. And those Great Blue Herron that's there most every day of the year. Not to mention the lmb that are large enough to eat an 8" or better lmb. I am pretty sure that happened alot at my pond prior to the fish kill. Takes me back to how many lbs per acre of fish in the pond?
