River Otter?!

I heard two strange reports today from some credible fishing friends of mine. Apparently while fishing in sharpsburgh on the allegheny, just before dark, they saw what they firmly believed was a river otter. At first they said they saw it surrface farther away from them and thought it might be a huge beaver or muskrat. It ended up comming within 20 feet of them and they got a clear look at it. they said it was around mid 40 inches long and they were close enough to even see the webbing on its feet and clearly saw its face. Now i know for years they have been trying to reintroduce these things into our waters but have NEVER hear of one being this far down river. Has anyone else seen one or had any experiences with them? Im blown away by this story and i think that if it truely was an otter that they should feel extremely lucky. I grilled this guy for 30 minutes straight questioning wether or not it was another river rodent and he standed firm that it was 100% an otter. I dunno what to think. Also they said that there were multiple other people there who witnessed this as well. was maybe hopeing some of them might be a member on this board.

Not sure about the allegheny, but did see a pair while fishing the upper yough a few years ago.

I too think it would be great to have river otters in and around the golden triangle.  As most of you know there are a lot of beaver now in the Pittsburgh area.  I see them on creeks and I know of a couple on the Ohio who dislike our boat when its anchored in their territory.  Sometimes this one beaver will just not let us fish in peace.  I'm not sure how much wooded habitat river otters would need.  I would think beavers need more.  Otters feed on fish while beaver do not.  There are tons of cracks and places on the shorelines for a otter to live.  

Snag - I fish Sharpsburg all the time. Saw something swimming around at night that was WAY TOO big to be a rat !!!(At least I hope!!) It was dark, so I couldn't get a good look but I was thinking it might have been a beaver, but it may be this river otter you are talking about.