Here we have incidental seals you can have on you and if an otter is caught seal it right there then no issues with any warden and turn into DNR. Sounds like WI needs incidental seals

I have been pushing for this for years but so far nothing has been done about It.

One year I had 4 incidental otter In 2 checks. First day I called the hot line. They said the warden would be there . I waited for a hour then I called and said I was taking It to the house. The warden came that night and collected the otter and told me If I caught any more just take them home and call me.

Convenient, Standardized reporting of incidental catches would be helpful in dealing with the problem after the problem.


Me too!
Regulation has really reduced the status of certain furbearers.

I would say to put in a resolution, but that deadline has passed. lol

I would just make it a call in. Same as now. Folks can already give to a buddy if they want to be dishonest now so no reason they can’t call it in now.

I’d sooner see you be “dishonest”. Give it away and put it to use than float it. At least it gets utilized and recorded. Zero incidentals should be the goal and increased quota is the first step towards reaching it. It’s a strange predicament, that is testing our problem solving skills. I think we’re stuck in that olsonology rut.

I remember when we had the thread otter logic and I kept telling folks the bag limit changed nothing. It was the quota that was important. Many folks assumed the bag limit solved the issues, but it was the increasing quota behind the scene that was having an impact.

Now without our favorite researcher, folks are afraid to push on. I am not surprised. After all, they just went along with his recommendations in the past instead of asking him to really understand why he was so comfortable in increasing the quota by the amounts he did. Had they done this little thing, they would have increased the quota last year.

Olson gets a bunch of the bad rap, but it is the research folks that have a bigger impact.

I really hope folks take the time to turn in the incidental otter beaver trapping. That number will be the bare bones low number that should be asked for in quota increase. I know the previous researcher would have asked for that much.

What are they afraid of?

I don’t think they have folks that understand what they are looking at. When we did otter logic, folks started taking the chatter to WTA and WCC events. Word was representatives from those groups were finally going to push for a big increase. Science Services went first and his number was bigger than what they were going to push for so they just changed their number to his. If they would have understood the numbers, they would have pushed for a larger number and set the framework in place to go above 2000.

I also think they want to keep a target rich experience. They want to be able to catch otter in every drainage ditch and don’t understand the waste that comes with an under utilized resource. They tend to be the trappers that trap the same place every year instead of going were the fur is. Those are the places that also likely feel the pressure from a more aggressive quota.

All that said, just wait until the natives decide to ramp up harvest. Season will close even sooner. Lol

He was the face behind the fear.



Hear that Steve?

It’s subject to interpretation, perhaps avoidance is a target rich experience.

Wait until some folks get in trouble for trying to register their incidentals. Looking at the deer harvest, we have enough folks registering deer for a holiday hunt that didn’t exist in their county. Hopefully law enforcement takes the time to educate instead of enforce. Actually work to retain trappers. Hopefully we brought this thread to the top enough that we caught a few before putting them in that situation.

I hate that we put more emphasis on quality of experience than we do on managing the resource. Trying to have otter in every pond and ditch in the state comes at a cost.

We skinned about 30 otters at the skinning shed. And another 20 or so that were skinned but not put up. Did a few beaver rats and some cats and a few mink. Started at 8:30 and were cleaned up around 1:00
Had about 10 trappers show up. Some with no experience and some old pros.
Some of those otter were from WLS and as far as I was told they are part of the WI otter quota. But Shawn was up at dist 8 so I didn't get to talk with him.

I expect any known animal removed from the population through harvest methods would be counted. I am curious what caused us to reach the quota this season? Also curious about the impact of incidentals as more trappers “do the right thing”. And the impact of the WS waste.

I don’t believe that a closure was particularly our best option. One targeting otter should not wait until Spring useless they are doing it with incidentals in mind.

Realistically April 1 starts a new season as our license expires on March 31.

That’s a good point. I have to believe the majority of WS incidentals are yet to come. Last year was 150 or about 6% of the total quota. That said, they don’t add those to the total on the otter harvest report.

I never had a count of how many we put up were WS caught but most of the ones we put up were early caught judging by leather quality.

Not added to the report but tallied against the quota?

How many beaver they removing to get that 150 otter?

Maybe it’s time for a WS Logic thread.....

Maybe it's time for WS to learn how to avoid otter if they are catching 150.

Think about it. In May, June and even July the rearing season. If 70 are females they really got 400.

Here’s the math 80 males + 40 young and 30 mature females x2.5 kit average =225 Correction on litter size.

A wise man once stated. “We get stuck in our paradigms”.

Sometimes bad things happen for good reasons.

Report shows over 3500 beaver. Ratio is about 23.5 beaver for each otter.

Not all females will be rearing young. You have to account for the juvenile ones. That said, there is a factor that needs to be accounted for.