Not so cute: Otters pose major hazard for pond owners

Photo courtesy of MDC/ A Missouri otter looking for fish.

Nevada Daily Mail

River otters, the largest member of the weasel family, are cute and their playfulness endears them to many humans. But to many anglers and farm pond owners they are serious fish predators with the ability almost overnight to make a pond fishless.

Rick Snelson, Marshfield, said he had waited his entire life to buy property that had some kind of impoundment. When they found their place in Marshfield, it was a dream come true.

Ken White/Daily Mail/ Joe Duryee, Boliver fur dealer, displays an otter pelt. He said, "Otter pelts used to bring $100 to $120, but today the price ranges from $25 to $35 per pelt."

He said, "The funny part about it was when my wife and I with the realtor, pulled up to the property, I opened up the back of my SUV and got out my fishing rod. My wife looked at me kind of funny and said, 'what are you doing?'

"I said 'I am going to see if there are any fish in those ponds.' She said, 'Don't you want to see the house?' I told her, not really, it looks like a nice house. If I can catch 10 bass in 30 minutes I am buying the place. Low and behold, I did, I caught 10 bass that would've weighed between two to four pounds each."

What has happened afterward has been a nightmare according to Snelson. Not long after, the new property owners saw something swimming in the ponds, thinking they were muskrats, and didn't think much about it.

Ken White/Daily Mail/ Rick Snelson, pond owner.

"A neighbor who has two adjoining ponds, was walking along the bank of a pond when he found skeletons of fish everywhere. There were literally hundreds of fish skeletons mainly catfish and a lot of bass. We noticed that all of our hand-fed catfish were completely gone," he said.

Snelson contacted the Missouri Department of Conservation who set traps in the water to help rid them of the varmints. During the winter, the otters appeared through holes in the ice then dove down and caught fish and tossed them on top of the ice.

Snelson said, "The otters don't just kill what they eat, they kill fish just to be killing. They kill three to four times more than they eat." The traps only caught one otter but Snelson hoped that would be the end of it.

The pond owner said he has worked closely with MDC during the past four years and for the most part he has been happy with their help and response, but the problem continues.

The Snelsons have lived in their home for four years now and have had otters as recently as last fall. The otters have wiped out their ponds for three of those years. They have stocked bass three years in a row at a cost of thousands of dollars just so Rick could catch fish.

The Snelsons were caught off guard and hope their experience will help make others like them become aware of the problem and try to find a solution.

The problem is reported statewide. Many other area pond owners have lost fish due to the invasion of otters. Ken Lippincott, Stockton, had a pond that was home to some big bass and channel catfish until otters hit two of his ponds wiping out the population of both species.

He said, "We liked to go to the pond and feed the channel cats, but one day they didn't respond. Then we found out that otters had moved in and destroyed all the catfish and big bass."

Several years ago, I recall a great fishing pond in Carroll County held some very nice-sized bass and catfish for years. Until one day, the otters moved in and destroyed the entire fish population of that pond as well as several others in the area. The owner of the pond said he saw an otter feasting on a channel catfish and that would be the end of good fishing at the pond. In looking for a solution to the otter invasion Missouri State Representative Robert Ross of District 142, proposed a bounty on otters that would help make their numbers decline, but his proposal did not get anywhere in Jefferson City.

Ross said, "The Missouri Department of Conservation has spent a tremendous amount of our tax dollars in sending otters throughout the state. They absolutely decimate the fish population. It has become a major issue. They need to look at the long term ramifications and what effect it has on everyday Missourians."

Tim Ripperger of the Missouri Department of Conservation in a television interview had said that trappers have done an excellent job of keeping otter numbers in check.

He said, "We receive very few otter complaints on a year-round basis. A few years ago the complaints were higher. Historically, bounties on any species whether it be otters or coyotes, who used to have a bounty in Missouri years ago, proved to be an non-effective way to control. We believe that our scientific approach to manage otters is working."

I recall when, in the early 1980s the late Kelly Bradham, sports editor of the Nevada Daily Mail gave his view point on the impending restocking of otters to Missouri.

"It won't work, leave them alone," Bradham said. "Don't trade our wild turkeys to Louisiana for their otters. We can eat the turkeys, but the otters will eat our fish."

A Missouri Conservationist article written in the June issue of 2007 stated in part, "Fishing is important to Missourians, the states numerous farm ponds, most which contain a combination of largemouth bass, bluegill and catfish provide lots of recreational angling for kids and adults.

"In our vision of otters living in Missouri we sure didn't see these ponds providing good habitat for otters nor did we see the desecration of fish in ponds they would cause. There is no predator of fish more efficient than river otters. Traveling in groups of two to eight animals they can hammer a small pond before anyone knows they are there.

"They eat fish in the winter when the fish are most vulnerable ---- especially they target hand-fed catfish ---- they eat two to three pounds of fish per day. At times when the fish are easy to catch otters kill many more fish than they eat."

Today at many Ozark marinas, during winter months, when docks are much less crowded, reportedly, otters leave a big mess for marinas to clean up. At Mutton Creek Marina on Stockton Lake, owner Dan Howard said, "For awhile in the winter we had a problem with the otters, but some of them were trapped, which helped."

Jeff Beringer, MDC resource scientist, deals with furbearers statewide. He said, "Otters have large home ranges. Some of our studies showed male otters covering 20 miles of river. So they don't stay in one place long. Its my experience that otters can impact fish populations in small ponds, so having a local trapper to remove problem animals is a good idea.

"Winter kill in ponds can be confused with otter depredation, extended ice and snow can cause vegetation to die and remove oxygen from ponds. When this happened the fish die off is severe, otter predation isn't as intense. Otters catch fish, spend a day or two in a pond and then move on. Small ponds without good fish structure or habitat make fish more vulnerable to predation, like trying to manage for rabbits without brush. MDC also has wildlife damage biologists to aid in wildlife depredation events."

Trapping otters could help control the otter population, which numbers between 10 to 15 thousand statewide.

Joe Duryee, Bolivar, who has been in the fur business for more than 45 years, said "When the trapping season first opened, otter pelts were bringing from $100 to $120. Today the price has dropped to an average of $25 to $35 per good pelt."

According to regulations, the season for trapping otters starts November 15 and will run through February 20, 2016 with no limit on the number of otters that may be taken. Otter pelts must be delivered to an agent of the Conservation Department by April 10 for tagging before selling, transferring, tanning or mounting.

They may be sold only to licensed taxidermists, tanners or fur dealers. It is illegal to purchase or sell untagged otters or their pelts. To get help on how to deal with otter problems contact the MDC Wildlife Damage Biologist at 417-380-4431 or email him at James.Dixon@mdc.mo.gov. For a state-wide perspective on otters call Jeff Beringer at 573-815-7900 or email him at Jeff.Beringer@mdc.mo.gov