Stroud: 'Traumatic' to find dead otter in trap says wild swimmer

A wild swimmer has spoken of the "traumatic" moment he discovered a dead otter in an unlicensed trap.

Mark Sweeting is a regular swimmer in the River Frome at Stroud and found the animal inside a signal crayfish trap.

He said another otter nearby had "screamed" at him before he discovered the trap during a morning swim on 28 June.

Police are investigating and the Environment Agency (EA) said there was no licence in place for the trap.

Mr Sweeting said when he arrived there was an otter close to him in the water and, despite swimming there regularly, he had never seen one.

However, it quickly became clear the animal was in distress.

"There was an otter really close to me in the river and at first I thought 'wow what a magical experience'. I had heard about the otters but never actually seen one that close," he said.

"He was definitely like screaming at me and just kept coming up towards me and getting closer, then I got to the river's edge and realised there was something below the water just at my feet," added Mr Sweeting.

He said he looked down to see a trap with something inside and pulled it out of the water for a closer look.

"I didn't realise what I had seen at first so I... investigated further and the otter swam even closer to me at this point," he said.

It was then that the swimmer realised it was a large, dead otter inside a trap.

Mr Sweeting unzipped the trap and put the animal in the water alongside the other otter.

"It was early in the morning and I wasn't quite sure what to do.

"It was quite traumatic but I thought the kindest thing to do was to let the other otter know that he had lost his soulmate," he added.

Otters are a protected species in UK law and it is an offence to deliberately kill, injure, disturb or capture them.

The incident was reported to police and animal welfare officers at Stroud District Council, which have both warned people about the dangers of traps.

The EA does not allow or licence traps in the River Frome area due to the potential risk to endangered native white clawed crayfish, the only exception being for scientific monitoring.

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