Last year while fishing well a somewhat secret pond located within eugene / springfield city limits had one pop up no less than 5 ft from me ! We stared each other down I was having a hard time believing what I saw . this guy was easily 5 ft long head to end of tail , me frozen in my toon seat he sat there and looked at me his head almost as big as my labrador dog and canine teeth that were bigger than my dogs he then slipped under the water without a ripple . Just about the time I started realizing he had snuck up on me without a ripple and dissapeared the same way this curious and large otter came up almost within arms distance again scared the crap out of me , not due to any aggresion just did not like the idea of him sneaking up on me totally exposed in a toon like that. Needless to say I caught 0 fish that day in a place that I normally get at least a couple , pretty sure it was due to my curious shadow which had probably tailed me the whole trip and made sure every fish in the joint was hiding for dear life ! Not to mention I was looking over my shoulder the rest of the evening which was basically over as soon as I could get out of there. I Do not think they are a danger to people but I would certainly never tangle with one they have most impressive fangs !