Remaining koi rescued from jaws of ravenous river otter

The Chinatown otter’s all-youcan-eat koi buffet has been shut down.

The two surviving adult ornamental koi — along with 344 juvenile carp — were scooped Tuesday from the twisting pond in Vancouver’s Sun Yat-sen Park, which has been closed since Nov. 23 after a river otter weaseled its way into the pond.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden, adjacent to the park, has also been closed.

Both the park and the garden were expected to reopen on Thursday.

The ravenous otter has been feasting on the fish for more than a week, devouring about 10 of the large long-lived resident koi.

Tuesday ’s rescue effort required the pond’s water level being lowered to let workers net the remaining koi.

Debbie Cheung, a spokeswoman for the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden, says it took a joint rescue effort that included staff from the Vancouver Aquarium and the Vancouver park board to capture the remaining fish on Wednesday.

She says the two specially bred koi will join a third that was captured earlier for an extended stay at the aquarium, along with the juvenile fish.

The otter, meanwhile, has not been seen in three days.

A wildlife relocation expert, who the park board is paying $85 an hour to capture the predator, installed live traps in the park, which were still in place on Wednesday night.

As of Tuesday, the expert had earned $1,000 for his effort, but the wily otter still roams free.

“It’s very smart,” Cheung says. “We have pieces of scales on the rocks and there are bones. We’re hosing that, we’re cleaning everything, we’re looking for any remains.”

The Vancouver park board says the pond will be refilled with water and staff plan to modify the garden’s entrance and exit points to deter future otter visits.

There are plans to announce a fundraiser this coming week to help with the cost of replacing the devoured koi. The colourful carp can cost anywhere from $10 for a small, young koi, up to thousands of dollars for show-grade, senior koi.

Earlier this year, a koi was sold at auction in Japan by breeder Kentaro Sakai for 203 million yen (CDN$2.4 million), setting a record.