By Cheryl Jahn

Otters wreaking havoc on sturgeon

Jan 19, 2021 | 4:13 PM

VANDERHOOF – When the Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative started its sturgeon release program in 2005, the fry that were released were very small. They became easy pickings for birds. Once the hatchery was built, they could delay the releases until the fish were larger and that’s what they do today. However, larger fish have created larger culprits. They have discovered otters are eating up the fish.

“Healthy mother otters produce healthy baby otters and the population starts to explode,” says Wayne Salewski of the Nechako Environment and Water Stewardship Society. “We know we have six or seven in the downtown core here that fish regularly. We also know that otters can eat three or four pounds a day.”

He suspects the otters have eaten 1,100 to 1,200 sturgeon. Finding a solution to that problem is something the folks with the recovery initiative will have to tackle this year.

“One of the conversations that will be coming up is otters and otter relocation,” says Salewski. “We know one particular otter has eaten five hundred [fish]. Would we relocate him to a new home? Would he be trapped out? How does society feel about that aspect? So that’s a conversation that’s coming up.”

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However, by moving the otters to a new habitat, would that be creating another problem elsewhere?