Meet Theresa Mason
Theresa Mason is in her 60’s and is a self-proclaimed ‘feral’ child. Theresa lived in an urban area growing up but was always out and about exploring. At around the age of 40, she moved from her home in London to Norfolk and her world changed significantly.
Theresa was already a member of every kind of trust: Otter Trust, Wildlife Trusts, National Trust, Woodland Trust plus Plantlife and other local groups, but it was around then that she discovered the International Otter Survival Fund. Theresa joined two of the IOSF survey trips in consecutive years and it really changed many things in her life and has kept her busy ever since!
Theresa lives in Thetford where the wonderful British Trust for Ornithology has its headquarters and a nature reserve. She immediately started volunteering for them as a litter picker, as one of the things that really struck Theresa during the IOSF trips was how litter can be so dangerous to wildlife. It seemed such a simple thing to do and something that she is still doing! Then, 16 years ago, Theresa began working for the BTO caring for the grounds. Theresa also joined the Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s surveying teams and got access to amazing stretches of rivers looking for Otter, Mink and Water Vole signs. She became completely hooked and has since joined many ‘citizen science’ projects including caring for our rivers.
Thetford has two beautiful rivers and Theresa walks her dog every day along them. Therasa had trained her previous dog to find spraint and he took to it with gusto. Theresa’s dog Charlie, who she has now, wasn’t interested for ages but he has finally got it. These days Theresa rarely spots otters but they find the spraint together and, as Theresa says herself, these are “happy days”.
Eurasian otter - Anastasia Krylova
What made you want to help otters/get into otter conservation?
Oh dear, this is hard as it’s so long ago, I can’t really remember. All I know is that when I turned 40, the mantra was…life begins at 40 and seeing Otters in the wild was top of my list. Hence why I signed up for the IOSF trips. And I never looked back.
What has been your favourite otter 'moment'?
This is easy. After the workshops I started going to Skye every year but had never spotted an otter totally on my own. It was always with much better naturalists. Plus, in my defence, I had rubbish binoculars. However, on my third trip, and a proud owner of some beautiful binos, I booked into a glorious hotel near the Skye bridge. I took up position on the bridge and, at nearly midnight one evening, I watched ‘my’ otter swim in the bay. I have goose bumps remembering it. It is such an adrenalin rush to be in the presence of a wild Otter just doing its thing. Of course, I have had many more sightings since and remember many of them clearly but that ‘first’ one was the best.
Do you feel people in general understand the importance of otters in respect to the environment/biodiversity?
No I don’t but maybe that is changing. There was a time when if I saw or heard of an Otter locally, I would keep it secret. Our local carp fishery hated them, the river fishermen hated them, people with ponds hated them and the local gamekeepers shot them (illegally). However, the fishery now does ‘distraction’ feeding and leaves them alone, the fishermen on the river now seem more tolerant and I haven’t heard of any being shot for many years. The environment and biodiversity wasn’t really discussed. Otters did put Thetford on the map though. There were two almost tame Otters who used to be in town a lot. People loved to watch them and they are still talked about many years later. Did people see them as indicators of a good river and a good ecosystem? I don’t know.
Eurasian otter - John Williams
How do you feel about the discharge of sewerage in our rivers/seas will/is affecting otter populations?
Oh this is just criminal and so unnecessary. Tragically, Otters will be and are under threat by increasingly polluted and dying rivers. The money going to shareholders of water companies could improve the infrastructure and technology to deal with this. However, there has to be a political will too. I know our systems are old and failing but there has to be proper investment. Our rivers here are relatively clean but that’s in part because there has been an active group monitoring them and alerting the water company. However, there is so much building going on and already the infrastructure is inadequate so the future looks bleak. Of course Otters suffer the direct consequences of polluted rivers due to political decisions and were the canary in the coal mine before. Is this happening again?
How do we dispel the myth that otters are 'everywhere' in the UK?
I don’t know. People seem to think they’re everywhere and, it’s true they have been brought back from near extinction. They are a good news story in the general bleakness of our biodiversity status. However, in the light of the last question, there’s no room for complacency. I suppose it has to be education of the general public. People have to know that if one Otter is wiped out, it could leave a river system empty and if it’s a female, that could be for many years.
I belong to several campaign groups and the question is always…how do we engage people? how do we get them to care? The answer seems to be people often have to be directly affected before they take action.
What is/are the major threat(s) faced by otters in your area?
This connects with question 3. So, I do think this answer has changed in the 27 years I’ve lived here. Thinking about it, I used to hear about Otter road kills and I haven’t for years. Now, is that I just don’t hear about them or are there less kills or are there less Otters being born that then have to find new territories?
Recent threats to Otters here have been crayfish cages. We have red signal crayfish and people trap them, two Otters have died in the cages.
Pollution is a major worry with the amount of building going on. Thetford already has a drainage system that fails in storms. We now have a flood gate at our front door because of a near miss with the drains not taking the storm water away. Parts of Thetford have been flooded with sewage over the past couple of years. Apparently, they are working on it but the local councillors admit it’s an impossible task due to the cost. On top of that 5,000 new homes are being built here.
Plans have also been submitted for a huge chicken factory. Visions of the Wye valley come to mind.
Habitat destruction could be a problem through the town. There is an obsession to ‘tidy’ the river corridor but, hopefully either side of town is wild enough.
Finally, abstraction used to be an issue with our rivers but, this year, their depth has held up. We do live in a heavily farmed area and a river warden once told me… all the good work on our rivers could be wiped out by one simple farm spill. I don’t know how true that is now and I hope it’s not true. I attended a lecture by a woman who snorkels the local rivers. Some stretches were beautiful and then some were utterly dead and then others were full of fly tipping.
A massive thank you to Theresa for answering our questions and being part of this 'meet', and for holding and maintaining such a passion for otters. Individuals like Theresa are so important and why otters have a chance!