Otters and salmon

[Frank The Tank]

As soon as those temps drop below freezing otters go really nutso trying to take in as many calories as possible to keep body temps up.  After otters go through a hatchery, it looks like a damn Civil War battlefield.  It reminds me of that line from the movie Jaws "All they do is swim, eat, and make little sharks".  Good parallel.   From a human perspective, they do look cute, but that's us projecting our emotion onto an animal that could care less, which all of us here understand.  Again, as we all scratch our heads on, is why this obsession of "predators only".   I mean, are the moose, the long-gone Selkirk Caribou (another great example of the state caring for a species all the way to extinction) etc, just not cute enough to meet the threshold? 

Anyway, catch all you can and throw em in the freezer!   I'll take em!

[MeepDog]

The average walleye in the Hanford reach eats between 2-3 smolts per day. That doesnt sound like much, but theres a lot more walleye than otters in that area. I wouldnt think the otters would be too picky about which species they eat so I bet theyre eating the warmwater species too.

[Humptulips]

I got to watch an otter this year from a short bridge, the river was chuck full of humpies and kings. The otter was diving down threw them to the bottom to get crawdads then coming up onto a rock to eat them, i figured he must have been tired of salmon as there were dozens partially eaten all over the banks. It was cool to watch

Otter love crawdads. What table would you head for at the seafood buffet, the one that has lobster and crab or the one with fishsticks?
Otter eat anything, fish, ducks (A guy I worked for lost 40+ ducks to otters in the spring.), frogs, you name it they are eating machines. I've watching them eating periwinkles a few times.

[Born2late]

Fishmaker57: thanks for your insight. I’ve worked around hatchery’s most of my career, and only saw the predator problem right in front of me. Never thought to trace the artificial gravey train downstream. Very good point.
Otter tenacity: at a hatchery an otter was coming in and feeding on spring chinook. The facility was very secure and I couldn’t see where this otter was coming in from. It snowed a couple inches and he left tracks. He came overland from the river, right up to the 8’ chain link fence. He climbed straight up the fence then went down the inside headfirst just like a squirrel would do. When he was done feeding he went out the same way. Never thought otters would climb a fence.
Also Fishmaker57, 3 years ago at a small hatchery mink were eating spring chinook. I caught 18 mink at that facility and their holding pond. And the kicker is, and I still ponder this, 17 were males

This study that was done from what I could understand of it seems to answer the question about why all the males together. They seem to say that when it’s a faster fish the males hunt in groups to have better success.
https://nebula.wsimg.com/dc1541faeffadc0308aa1f45bf0d9800?AccessKeyId=C6BEF15A8F74348DFEB9&disposition=0&alloworigin=1