Watts has a more intimate relationship with ospreys<\/a> than most people have with a bird \u2014 he has climbed to their nests to free them from plastic bags, fed them by hand and monitored their eggs with telescopic mirrors.<\/p>\n The fish-eating raptor known for gymnastic dives and whistle-like chirps is an American conservation success story. After pesticides and other hazards nearly eliminated the species from much of the country, the hawk-like bird rebounded after the banning of DDT in 1972 and now numbers in the thousands in the U.S.<\/p>\n But Watts has documented an alarming trend. The birds, which breed in many parts of the U.S., are failing to successfully fledge enough chicks around their key population center of the Chesapeake Bay. The longtime biologist blames the decline of menhaden, a small schooling fish critical to the osprey diet. Without menhaden to eat, chicks are starving and dying in nests, Watts said.<\/p>\n Osprey are an environmental indicator<\/p>\n Watts\u2019s claim has put him and environmental groups at odds with the fishing industry, trade unions and sometimes government regulators. Menhaden is valuable for fish oil, fish meal and agricultural food as well as bait.<\/p>\n U.S. fishermen have caught at least 1.1 billion pounds of menhaden every year since 1951. Members of the industry tout its sustainability and said the decline in osprey may have nothing to do with fishing.<\/p>\n But without help, the osprey population could tumble to levels not seen since the dark days of DDT<\/a>, said Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.<\/p>\n \u201cThe osprey are yelling pretty loudly that, hey, there\u2019s not enough menhaden for us to reproduce successfully,\u201d Watts said. \u201cAnd we should be listening to them to be more informed fully on the fisheries side, and we should take precaution on the fisheries management side. But that hasn\u2019t won the day at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Decline linked to menhaden in studies<\/p>\n Watts, who has studied osprey on the Chesapeake for decades, has backed his claims of population decline by publishing studies in scientific journals<\/a>. He said it boils down to a simple statistic \u2014 to maintain population, osprey pairs need to average 1.15 chicks per year.<\/p>\n Osprey were reproducing at that level in the 1980s, but today in some areas around the main stem of the Chesapeake, it\u2019s less than half of that, Watts said. In particularly distressed areas, they aren\u2019t even reproducing at one-tenth that level, he said. And the decline in available menhaden matches the areas of nesting failure, Watts said.<\/p>\n Also called pogies or bunkers, the oily menhaden are especially important for young birds because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Osprey \u201creproductive performance is inextricably linked to the availability and abundance\u201d of menhaden, Watts wrote in a 2023 study<\/a> published in Frontiers in Marine Science.<\/p>\n Conservationists have been concerned for years, saying too many menhaden have been removed to maintain their crucial role in the ocean food chain. Historian H. Bruce Franklin went so far as to title his 2007 book on menhaden \u201cThe Most Important Fish In The Sea.\u201d<\/p>\n Menhaden help sustain one of the world\u2019s largest fisheries, worth more than $200 million at the docks in 2023. Used as bait, the fish are critical for valuable commercial targets such as Maine lobster. They\u2019re also beloved by sportfishermen.<\/p>\n The modern industry is dominated by Omega Protein, a Reedville, Virginia, company that is a subsidiary of Canadian aquaculture giant Cooke. The harvesting of the menhaden is performed by an American company, Ocean Harvesters, which is based in Reedville and contracts with Omega, which handles processing. The companies pushed back at the idea that fishing is the cause of osprey decline, although they did acknowledge that fewer menhaden are showing up in some parts of the bay.<\/p>\n Federal data show osprey breeding is in decline in many parts of the country, including where menhaden is not harvested at all, said Ben Landry, an Omega spokesperson. Climate change, pollution and development could be playing a role, said Landry and others with the company.<\/p>\n Blaming fishing \u201cjust reeks of environmental special interest groups having an influence over the process,\u201d Landry said.<\/p>\n New rules could be on the way<\/p>\n The menhaden fishery is managed by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, an interstate body that crafts rules and sets fishing quotas. Prompted by questions about ospreys, it created a work group to address precautionary management of the species in the Chesapeake Bay.<\/p>\n In April, this group proposed several potential management approaches, including seasonal closures, restrictions on quotas or days at sea, and limitations on kinds of fishing gear. The process of creating new rules could begin this summer, said James Boyle, fishery management plan coordinator with the commission.<\/p>\n The osprey population has indeed shown declines in some areas since 2012, but it\u2019s important to remember the bird\u2019s population is much larger than it was before DDT was banned, Boyle said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are big increases in osprey population since the DDT era,\u201d Boyle said, citing federal data showing a six-fold increase in osprey populations along the Atlantic Coast since the 1960s.<\/p>\n To a number of environmental groups, any decline is too much. This irritates some labor leaders who worry about losing more jobs as the fishing industry declines.<\/p>\n Kenny Pinkard, retired vice president of UFCW Local 400\u2019s executive board and a longtime Virginia fishermen, said he feels the industry is being scapegoated.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are some people who just don\u2019t want to see us in business at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Chris Moore, Virginia executive director for Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the country risks losing an iconic bird if no action is taken. He said Watts\u2019s studies show that the osprey will fail without access to menhaden.<\/p>\n \u201cOsprey have been a success story,\u201d Moore said. \u201cWe\u2019re in a situation where they\u2019re not replacing their numbers. We\u2019ll actually be in a situation where we\u2019re in a steep decline.\u201d<\/p>\n Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.<\/p>\n This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Patrick Whittle and Allen G. Breed, The Associated Press GLOUCESTER POINT, Va. \u2014 Stepping onto an old…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":64063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-64062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-united-states","10":"tag-unitedstates","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114849919995600652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Osprey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ZQML3NP3BVHZZMT23FWFJGBCNI.jpg\")
An osprey is silhouetted as it perches atop a nest on the Lynnhaven River, June 30, 2025, in Virgina Beach, Va. (AP Photo\/Stephanie Scarbrough)AP<\/p>\n![\"Osprey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3MZ5NNPAKRCHFMDF7OPDO4MEEU.jpg\")
CORRECTS TO BRYAN, NOT BRIAN – Bryan Watts, research professor and director of the Center for Conservation Biology at The College of William & Mary, looks over at failed osprey nest atop a wooden duck blind on the Lower York River, June 30, 2025, in Gloucester Point, Va. (AP Photo\/Stephanie Scarbrough)APFishing industry pushes back<\/p>\n![\"Osprey](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/ZMPSNVTFFBBLTFU6ZVYUJVXOHQ.jpg\")
An osprey flies with a half-eaten fish in its talons above the Lynnhaven River, June 30, 2025, in Virginia Beach, Va. (AP Photo\/Stephanie Scarbrough)APEnvironmentalists say bird\u2019s decline could worsen<\/p>\n