Osprey came back from the brink once. Now chicks are dying in nests, and some blame overfishing

Gloucester Point, Va. (AP)-In the middle of the York River, an old wooden duck blindly stepped into the Bryan Watts, worn, Guano leaping platform and a circle of pine cone. A unsuccessful Osprey nest taken over by diving Terns.

“Birds never put here this year,” said Watts close to Virginia’s mouth. Gulf of Chesapeake. “And this is a model we’ve seen in the last few years.”

It has a more intimate relationship with Watts. Ospreys Since most people have a bird – he climbed their nests to save them from plastic bags, fed them by hand and watched their eggs with telescopic mirrors.

Rapor, who eats fish, known for gymnastic dives and whistle -like chirps, is an American protection success story. Pesticides and other dangers, after almost eliminating species from most of the country, HAWK -like bird returned after the ban on DDT in 1972, and now thousands of numbers in the USA

However, Watts documented a worrying tendency. Birds breeding in many parts of the United States do not successfully spread enough chicks around the key population center of the Gulf of Chesapeake. For a long time, the biologist blames the fall of Menhaden, a small school fish that is critical for the Osprey diet. Watts, menhaden without eating chicks are starving and die in the nests.

Osprey an environmental indicator

Watts’ claim contradicted him and the environmental groups with the fishing industry, trade unions and sometimes government organizers. Menhaden, fish oil, fish food and agricultural food, as well as feed for feed.

US fishermen have caught at least 1.1 billion pounds each year since 1951. Industry members demonstrate their sustainability and said the decline in Osprey may not have anything to do with fishing.

However, without help, the population of Osprey may fall to levels that have not been seen since the dark days. DDTWilliam & Mary College Protection Biology Center Director Watts, Williamsburg, Virginia, “he said.

“Osprey is shouting quite loudly, hey, there is not enough menhaden to successfully reproduce,” Watts said. “And we have to listen to them to inform them exactly on the fishing side and take precautions on the fishing administration side. However, this did not win the day at this point.”

Decrease with Menhaden in the studies

Watts, who has been studying Osprey in Chesapeake for decades, supported the allegations of population decrease by publishing scientific studies. magazines. He said it boils into a simple statistics – to maintain the population, Osprey couples need to be 1.15 chicks per year.

Osprey was produced at this level in the 1980s, but today he said in some areas around Chesapeake’s main body, he said it was less than half. Especially in troubled areas, he said that they did not reproduce even in one tenth of that level. Watts said that the decline in the current Menhaden was matched with nesting failure areas.

Oily Menhaden, also called pogi or shelter, is especially important for young birds, because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Ossrey is linked to Menhaden’s availability and abundance in an inseparable way of reproduction performance ” Written in a study in Watts 2023 It was published in Frontiers in marine science.

The protectionists have been worried for years and say that they have been abolished too much to protect their important roles in the ocean food chain. Historian H. Bruce Franklin went too far to start the Menhaden’s Menhaden’s Most Most important Fish in the Sea ”.

Fishing Industry Back

Menhaden helps maintain one of the world’s largest fisheries worth more than $ 200 million on the dock in 2023. The fish used as feed is critical for valuable commercial goals such as Maine lobster. They are also loved by athlete men.

The modern industry is a reedville, a reedville, a subsidiary of Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke, and Omega Protein, a company of Virginia. Although the company admitted that Less Menhaden appears in some parts of the Gulf, he returned to the idea that fishing was the reason for the fall of Osprey.

Omega spokesman Ben Landry shows that federal data is in a decline, including the place where Menhaden’s breeding is never harvested in many parts of the country. Climate change, pollution and development may play a role with Landry and companies.

Landry, accusing fishing, “It is composed of environmental private interest groups that have an impact on the process, Land Landry said.

There may be new rules on the road

Menhaden Fishing is ruled by the Atlantic States, which is an inter -state organ that sets rules and forms fishing quotas. He was asked with questions about Ospreys, creating a working group to address the precautionary management of the species in the Gulf of Chesapeake.

In April, this group proposed a variety of potential management approach, including seasonal closing, limitations on quotas or on the sea, and limitations on fishing equipment types. James Boyle, the Coordinator of Fisheries Management Plan with the commission, said that the process of creating new rules could start this summer.

The population of Osprey has really declined in some regions since 2012, but it is important to remember that the bird’s population is much larger than the prohibition of DDT.

Federal Federal data, which has increased six times in Osprey populations along the Atlantic coast since the 1960s, said, “There are major increases in the population of Oscrey since the DDT period.”

Environmentalists say that the fall of the bird can worsen

Any decrease in a number of environmental groups is too much. This irritates some labor leaders who are concerned about losing more jobs as the fishing industry decreases.

UFCW Local 400’s Executive Board and Vice President of Virginia Fishermen for a long time, Kenny Pinkard said that the industry was a scapegoat.

“There are some people who never want to see us at work,” he said.

However, Chris Moore, General Manager of the Chesapeake Gulf Foundation Virginia, said the country is at risk of losing an iconic bird if no action is performed. He said Watts showed that his work will fail without reaching Menhaden.

“Osprey had a success story, Moore said Moore. “We are in a situation where they do not change their numbers. In fact, we will be in a situation where we make a steep drop.”

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Whittle Portland was reported to Maine.

___ This story was supported by financing from the Walton Family Foundation. AP is only responsible for all content.