Scientists: Mass starving of osprey chicks likely result of menhaden over-harvesting

by Whitney Pipkin – 

In “the good days” a few years ago, each of the 83 active osprey nests monitored in Mobjack Bay might have had one hatched egg by late spring, said Michael Academia, a researcher with the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary in Virginia.

But recently, the nests have produced a total of just 10-15 hatchlings per year. And, during a check this June, there appeared to be only three young ospreys in all of the nests combined.

“Something’s not adding up,” he said.

In a paper published in the Frontiers of Marine Science in April, Academia contends that the cause of these dips in nest numbers is a shortage of food — namely, Atlantic menhaden. The center has been tracking the health of local osprey populations since the 1970s and sees “an inextricable link” between the birds and the nutrient-rich fish that travel in schools near the water’s surface in the ocean and estuaries.

A study in the mid-1980s first identified that menhaden often make up nearly 75% of an osprey’s diet. A 2009 study showed that is still the case the closer the ospreys are to the mouth of the Chesapeake, while upper Bay birds tend to have a more varied diet…

(Whitney Pipkin is a Virginia-based staff writer for the Bay Journal, where this story originally appeared. You can reach her at wpipkin@bayjournal.com. Timothy B. Wheeler contributed to this story.)