This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
Ospreys in the Chesapeake Bay recorded their worst breeding season on record, according to the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary.
The number of birds laying eggs has dropped 20% to 30%, a steeper decline than during the height of the DDT crisis in the 1970s and ‘80s, when the osprey population was decimated by the powerful insecticide that was widely used then before it was later banned.
The reason behind the poor numbers: The birds are starving.
“They migrate all the way up thousands of miles from the Amazon basin. They come up here to breed, and they’re here at the nest and they sit there all season and don’t lay eggs,” said Bryan Watts, Director for the Center for Conservation Biology.
Watts said that among the chicks that do hatch, researchers are finding many abandoned in their nests and left to go hungry only a few weeks after being born.
“We have a site in Bowler’s Wharf,” Watts said. “We had 47 pairs there, so we should have 90-some adults. We went out there in early July, the peak of the breeding season, and we had eight adults.”
Watts said several factors can typically contribute to an osprey’s inability to lay eggs or keep a chick alive, including weather conditions, contaminants and human interference.
“But that’s really not what we’re seeing,” he said. “Those are minor contributors at this point. This is a Bay-wide thing that is due to food stress from low prey availability.”
Ospreys rely heavily on Atlantic menhaden for their diets. The oily forage fish is shrouded in politics.
Watts’ research points to a lack of menhaden in the Bay during critical times for the osprey breeding season. The Atlantic Marine Fisheries Commission has debated whether commercial menhaden fishing should be reduced, limited to certain times of the year or subjected to other restrictions to allow more fish to migrate through the Bay.
The commission is considering a draft addendum that would reduce the Bay-specific catch limits for the only reduction fishery operating in the Chesapeake Bay — Reedville-based Ocean Harvesters.
The fishery has staunchly opposed potential cuts to its catch limit, emphasizing that there is no definitive proof that commercial menhaden fishing is the reason ospreys can’t find enough food.
“The underlying causes of reduced availability of menhaden to osprey are not clear. Climate change, commercial harvest, changes in distribution or delayed entry into Bay waters may be contributing factors,” the report states
Ocean Harvesters already must abide by a catch limit of 51,000 metric tons of menhaden inside the Chesapeake Bay. A year ago, the menhaden management board voted to reduce the East Coast catch limit for all fisheries by 20%, to 186,840 metric tons.
“We are not disputing the reproductive conditions reported by the Center,” Ocean Harvesters said in a statement. “The point is simply that neither CCB nor U.S. Geological Survey has established that commercial menhaden fishing caused them.”
After years of legislative attempts, the state is commissioning a $2 million study to take a closer look at the menhaden population in the Bay and help determine whether updated conservation standards should be adopted — including potential harvest reductions — to bolster the population.
Conservation groups have for years called for a moratorium on commercial menhaden fishing in the Bay while more data is collected.
“The Bay and its osprey can’t wait any longer. The commission must act if we have any chance at reversing these dire ecological warning signs,” said Chesapeake Bay Foundation Executive Director Chris Moore following the release of the breeding numbers.
The debate over lack of data on menhaden in the Bay has led to a stalemate.
The state study will take two years to complete, but catch limits could be affected as soon as this fall if the commission approves the draft addendum. The proposal is open for public comment through October, with a final decision expected in November.