There are beavers in north Florida/south Georgia but we don't have them this far south. Joe's article on beavers got me thinking about the problem critter we have in Florida. What destructive critter we do have is called an otter. I don't have a problem with any animal eating to survive but when I see nice Largemouth Bass laying on the banks with one bite taken out of the bellies, it makes me sick. So the otter may return to finish the meal but more often than not, that is not the case unfortunately. It is illegal to trap or shoot otters in Florida but that does not deter landowners from protecting their prime fisheries it seems. Some taking great pains to grow prize LMB in their waters. I have known such landowners. Fencing or covers in a fishery may work for small waters but not larger ones and it is an expensive endeavor. Trapping by permit and relocating usually just gives the trapped otter to another unfortunate landowner in the long run. By the time a permit to shoot is obtained (if it is even possible to get one), the otters have already done their work on the fishery, the same for a trapping permit. So landowners shoot otters covertly. Gators do control such critters as beavers and otters to a certain degree but such critters have learned to avoid the gators for the most part while living along side them in Florida waters it seems. A free-ranging family of otters can wipe out a prime fishery in a short period of time. I have seen it. When one fishery is destroyed, they move on to another one. Otters don't care about maintaining fisheries like humans do so such fisheries have to be artificially restocked after the otters have done their work or the fishery just takes many years before it can fully recover. This starts the cycle all over again by continuing to inadvertently feed the otters. I don't like the idea of killing anything including otters or beavers but it seems there is no real solution either for controlling otters here. With an ever increasing human population in Florida, the otters are on the short end of the stick so its no wonder they are protected by law. A law many landowners ignore to protect their prized fisheries. An ongoing, complex, and perplexing problem. Thanks for the article, Joe.

http://myfwc.com/CRITTERS/RiverOtter.htm