Gloucester Point, from. (AP)-Step on an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River, Bryan Watts looks down to a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered platform-spatted platform. It is a failed Osprey -Nest, taken over by diving Sterns.
“The birds have never laid here this year,” said Watts, near the mouth of the Besapake Bay of Virginia. “And that is a pattern that we have seen in recent years.”
Watts has a more intimate relationship with Ospreys than most people with a bird have – he has climbed their nests to free them from plastic bags, handed hand and to follow their eggs with telescopic mirrors.
The fishing Raptor known for gymnastic dives and whistle-like Tjilps is an American success story of nature conservation. After pesticides and other dangers almost eliminated the species, the hawk -like bird recovered after the ban for banning DDT and now figures in the thousands in the US
But Watts has documented an alarming trend. The birds, which breed in many parts of the US, fail to successfully flex enough chicks around their most important population center of the Chesapeake bay. The old biologist blames the decline of menhaden, a small training fish that is crucial for the Osprey diet. Without eating menhaden, chicks are starving and they die in nests, Watts said.
Osprey is an environmental indicator
The claim of Watts has set him and environmental groups at odds with the fishing sector, trade unions and sometimes government regulators. Menhaden is valuable for fish oil, fishmeal and agricultural food and bait.
Since 1951, American fishermen have caught at least 1.1 billion pounds of menhaden every year. Members of the industry prices are sustainability and said that the decline of Osprey has nothing to do with fish.
But without help, the Osprey population was able to tumble to levels that are no longer seen since the dark days of DDT, Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology, said to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
“The osprey screams pretty loudly that, hey, there is not enough menhaden for us to successfully reproduce,” said Watts. “And we should listen to them to be better informed on the fishing side, and we have to take precautions on the fishing management side. But that has not won the day at the moment.”
Decline coupled with menhaden in studies
Watts, who has been studying Osprey on the Chesapeake for decades, has supported his claims of population loss by publishing studies in scientific journals. He said it comes down to a simple statistics – to maintain the population, Osprey pairs should on average 1.15 chicks per year.
Osprey reproduced at that level in the 1980s, but today in some areas around the main stem of the Chesapeake it is less than half of that, said Watts. In particularly distracting areas, they do not even reproduce at a tenth of that level, he said. And the decline of the available menhaden corresponds to the areas of nesting failure, said Watts.
Also called pogies or bunkers, the cool menhaden are especially important for young birds because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Osprey “reproductive performance is inextricably linked to the availability and abundance” of Menhaden, Watts wrote in a study from 2023 published in Frontiers in Marine Science.
Conservationists have been concerned for years and said that too many menhaden have been removed to maintain their crucial role in the food chain of the ocean. Historian H. Bruce Franklin went so far that he titled his book from 2007 about menhaden 'the most important fish in the sea.
Fishing industry pushes back
Menhaden helps to support one of the world's largest fishing, worth more than $ 200 million at the port in 2023. Used as bait, the fish are crucial for valuable commercial goals such as Maine Lobster. They are also loved by sport fishing.
The modern industry is dominated by Omega Protein, a company of Reedville, Virginia, a subsidiary of the Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke. The company pushed back to the idea that fish is the cause of the decline of fishing, although it acknowledged that fewer menhaden appear in some parts of the bay.
Federal data show that breeding Osprey is decreasing in many parts of the country, including where menhaden is not harvested at all, said Ben Landry, a spokesperson for Omega. Climate change, pollution and development can play a role, said Landry and others at the company.
Accusing fishing “simply smells of environmental special interest groups that influence the process,” said Landry.
New rules can be on the road
The menhaden fishing is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that makes rules and determines Visquota. Asked by questions about Ospreys, it created a working group to tackle precautionary management of the species in the Chesapeake Bay.
In April, this group presented various potential management approaches, including seasonal closures, restrictions on quotas or days at sea, and limitations on types of fish equipment. The process of creating new rules could begin this summer, said James Boyle, coordinator of the fishing management plan at the committee.
The Osprey population has indeed deteriorated in some areas since 2012, but it is important to remember that the population of the bird is much greater than before DDT was forbidden, Boyle said.
“There are a large increase in fishing reach since the DDT era,” said Boyle, with reference to federal data that showing a six-fold increase in Osprey populations along the Atlantic coast since the 1960s.
Environmental activists say that the decline of birds could worsen
Every decline is too much for a number of environmental groups. This annoys some workers who are concerned about losing more jobs as the fishing industry decreases.
Kenny Pinkard, retired vice -president of UFCW Local 400's Executive Board and an old Virginia fishermen, said he thinks the industry will be scapegoat.
“There are people who just don't want to see us in business,” he said.
But Chris Moore, Virginia, executive director of Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said that the country runs the risk of losing an iconic bird if no action is taken. He said that the Watts studies show that the fishing will fail without access to menhaden.
“Osprey has been a success story,” said Moore. “We are in a situation where they do not replace their figures. We will actually be in a situation where we are in a steep decline.”
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
___ This story was supported by financing the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is only responsible for all content.
