The otter (Lutra lutra) was considered practically extinct in Catalonia between the 1970s and 1980s, with only small surviving populations in short stretches of rivers in the central regions of Lleida. The Otter Survey otter study project throughout Spain, promoted by Miguel Delibes de Castro, enabled Jordi Ruiz-Olmo and other experts to carry out, starting in 1984, the first surveys in hundreds of points in Catalonia in search of a species for which there was very little scientifically proven data.
The tracking gave its first results a few years later and, more positive if possible, a gradual recovery of the populations of this species in many river courses could be verified, simultaneous with the improvement of water quality and the protection of habitats in those that these small carnivorous mammals naturally inhabit (they feed mainly on fish, amphibians and other aquatic animals).
Two decades after the beginning of this recovery, traces of their presence were detected even on beaches like Pals, but "between 1984 and 2016, no otters living sednetarily in the sea were found in Catalonia, nor in the rest of the region." Geographic Mediterranean in the Iberian Peninsula", as stated by Jordi Ruiz-Olmo, David Camps, Josep Books).
Scientific knowledge about this species in Catalonia changed radically starting in February 2016 following an incidental encounter of a spearfisherman who was freediving in waters north of Roses and encountered an otter under the sea. After the first verifications, it was possible to corroborate the permanent presence of otters in various points on the Empordà coast and between 2017 and 2019, larger studies were carried out on the presence of this species in various areas of the Catalan coast.
From 2017 to the present, stable and permanent populations of otters (they live in all seasons of the year) have been identified in areas from Portbou and Colera to Begur. In Roses, the presence of these animals has been maintained since 2016 but with significant reductions between the summer of 2020 and the spring-summer of 2022, according to experts. Otters in salt water in the Empordà area usually live in the ports and the surrounding coast but also in stretches of undeveloped coastline. The reproduction and survival of hatchlings have also been confirmed in various points in this northern area of the Costa Brava. In the Baix Empordà the presence of the otter in salt water is associated with the mouths of rivers such as the Ter or the Fluvià.
On the other hand, recent studies have detected the presence of otters in the Ebro delta (l'Ampolla, 2028 and 2019; Ametlla de Mar, 2019; and la Ràpita. 2019), and the mouths of the Besòs and the Llobregat.
Jordi Ruiz-Olmo, co-editor of the book and co-author of the chapter on the otter, explains to La Vanguardia that it is very likely that the populations of this species on the Catalan coast "will be consolidated in the north of Begur, due to the large amount of water existing fresh water - wetlands, rivers, irrigation ditches - and due to the siliceous nature of the soil, which is more impermeable. "In the rest of the coast of Catalonia it will depend on whether the ports can offer more or less fresh water. In large areas with sandy beaches it will be more difficult for them to stay longer, since they often do not have fresh water," says this expert. , which has been studying the recovery of the otter in Catalonia for four decades.
The future of the species in our country and especially in areas close to the sea, however, is not assured, says Ruiz Olmo: "With climate change all this can change and could harm them: less rain, less fresh water to wash the fur of these animals.
"It seems that otters have a future in our sea, and very probably also in other places in the Mediterranean Sea, although they are still very few and any increase in the mortality rate can put them in danger," the authors conclude in their specialized chapter. .
