Chesapeake Ospreys in the Dumps

From the Virginia Mercury, Chesapeake Bay ospreys see worst breeding season on record. "Researchers point to food shortages as regulators consider reducing commercial menhaden harvests."

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.

FWIW, today I saw more Ospreys today than I have all year. They were out flying over the Bay, sitting in trees and squawking. What I did not see, and this differs from most times, is a single one dive and catch a fish. Since the breeding females are supposed to be gone by now, I suspect what I heard was a lot of juveniles telling Dad they were hungry, and the Dads did not seem to be bringing home the bacon (Menhaden), whether out of inability to find some, or out of tough love. 'Come on, kid, I'm leaving in a few days, and then you're on your own for good.'

Save the Osprey!

Says Gerald Winegrad at the Balmer Sun,

Help save osprey chicks from starving

Your support is urgently needed for long-overdue major restrictions on the Virginia-based slaughter of tens of millions of individual menhaden a year. Thousands of osprey chicks in higher-salinity waters of bay country are dying slow, horrible deaths from starvation because of corporate greed decimating the ospreys’ major food supply — the Atlantic menhaden (also called alewife or bunker).

 

These oily calorie- and protein-dense forage fish are the major food for adult and young ospreys in tidal bay reaches.

Hearings are set along the Atlantic coast for the public to weigh in on whether to greatly reduce the huge harvest of menhaden in the Chesapeake by as much as 50% and to spread that harvest more evenly throughout the fishing season to allow enough summer menhaden for ospreys, other birds and fish.

Virginia allows large commercial ocean purse seine vessels using high-capacity netting techniques to scoop up entire schools of menhaden in the water after scout planes find the schools and smaller vessels circle the fish in vast nets. Maryland banned such harvest techniques more than 50 years ago. Omega Protein’s contracted fleet has been known to exceed its quota. Virginia is the only state along the Atlantic coast that still permits such an industrial reduction fishery, located in Reedville, Virginia.

 

The reduction facility processes the whole fish by cooking, pressing and separating them into fish meal, used as high-protein feed for aquaculture (farmed fish) and livestock. Menhaden are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids and used in human dietary supplements. Cooke Inc. of Canada purchased the U.S.-based Omega Protein in 2017 for $500 million. Cooke operates as a fully integrated global seafood and aquaculture corporation that controls every stage of production from freshwater hatcheries to consumer distribution, including for Atlantic salmon.

 

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a 13-state coastal interstate body that regulates near-shore fishing for migratory species, has been under pressure to end or greatly reduce this industrial harvest for decades. Omega Protein and Virginia have done all in their power to block any tighter regulations by the ASMFC or the state. Their governors and elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats, have been plied with hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations over the last 20 years. Even legislation to study the Chesapeake menhaden population had been blocked by the Virginia legislature.

In August, the ASMFC finally voted to “consider” whether to adopt meaningful reductions, including up to a maximum of a 50% cut. This vote will take place at its November meeting after hearing from the public. This does not mean they will do anything to change the current harvest cap of 51,000 metric tons. That equates to roughly 112.4 million pounds of fish or about 150 million fish.

But we all have a chance to weigh in and force the ASMFC to act. Your opportunity comes from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. this Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the Annapolis High School Auditorium. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission will host.

The Osprey were hard at work today at the beach. According to AI, the mothers are gone:

Fall Migration (Heading South)

• Late August: Adult females are the first to leave their breeding grounds.
• September: Juveniles and failed breeders head south during this month.
• September to October: Adult males are the last to leave because they stay behind to feed the young until they can fish on their own. Most birds reach Central or South America by late fall

Eye on Annapolis, Severn River Osprey Reproduction Plummets for Second Consecutive Year

Beach Report 7/21/26

When I got to the beach this afternoon, there were a bunch of pelicans sitting on the jetty, and a few were diving in the water:

And this is what they were eating, Menhaden schools in the shallow water.

Way up the beach I encountered this White-tailed Deer and her fawn:

At first they didn't see me, but when she finally did, she snorted, and they ran off back up the creek bed.

The Ospreys and eagles were out, too, and, oh yeah, I found 17 unremarkable shark's teeth.

Menhaden and Ospreys

 From the National Fisherman, Study fuels Atlantic menhaden debate

As the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission prepares to revisit Atlantic menhaden management later this year, an economic study is adding momentum to shift more of the coastwide quota toward bait fisheries, while recent debate in Virginia continues to highlight disagreements over research and management of the species.

The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) issued a release on June 24 about a study by Southwick Associates that estimated that recreational fishing trips using Atlantic menhaden as bait generated approximately $1.5 billion in total economic output and supported more than 7,200 jobs nationwide in 2025.

According to the study, anglers spent roughly $804 million on fishing trips involving menhaden bait while using the species during an estimated 13.9 million fishing days along the Atlantic Coast. Of those trips, approximately 2.5 million occurred in New England, with another 6.3 million in the Mid-Atlantic and 5.1 million in the South Atlantic.

"Atlantic fishing trips involving menhaden generate more than $1.5 billion in annual economic output," said Ben Scuderi, lead economist at Southwick Associates. "That figure represents the full spectrum of spending that occurs for fishing trips where menhaden are used as bait, from direct purchases of equipment, food, fuel, and the many other items needed for a day of fishing, to the downstream effects that spending has on retailers, manufacturers, and countless other businesses."

The report arrives ahead of several major Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission decisions expected this fall. In November, the commission’s Atlantic Menhaden Management Board is scheduled to establish a new coastwide total allowable catch for the 2027-28 fishing season and may also decide whether to begin formally reconsidering how state menhaden quotas are allocated.

Tom Horton at the Bay Journal,  The mysterious case of disappearing Chesapeake ospreys

This bird of prey, called a fish hawk by some, is known along shorelines from Japan to Australia, from India and the Strait of Hormuz to much of Europe and North America. “Ospreys and people have been overlapping since there were people,” said Alan Poole, author of two books about Pandion haliaetus.

In 2023, when Joanie began the Virginia Osprey Foundation out of their cottage at Colonial Beach, she observed robust production of 55 osprey chicks from 36 active nests around the community. Baywide, ospreys were continuing their heartening comeback from the dark days of DDT — from a historic 1972 low of about 1,500 nesting pairs to an estimated 10,000-12,000 pairs now throughout the Chesapeake Bay region.

Then, a sudden and mysterious population crash: Only five chicks reached adulthood in 2024, eight in 2025. Young ospreys were seen walking aimlessly, dazed and apparently starving. There were fish crows stealing osprey eggs as females left them in search of food the males could no longer provide. Adults were eating their dead babies. “That is difficult to watch, and the whole town takes it to heart,” Barry said as they prepared for the town’s seventh annual osprey festival this spring.

Baywide, a similar picture was emerging, with poor nesting success throughout 80% of the estuary and its tidal rivers and an estimated 5,500 young ospreys starving to death, according to Bryan Watts, a Virginia scientist known for his decades of Chesapeake osprey research. Ecologically, cannibalism of dead young “makes energetic sense when calories are scarce,” says Watts, who is the director of William & Mary University’s Center for Conservation Biology. But, Joanie said, it breaks your heart to watch.

The reversal of ospreys’ fortunes has been dramatic and well documented. While scientists mostly think there is no single cause, the decline has reinvigorated a dispute over the commercial harvest of menhaden by Omega Protein. a Canadian company with a fishing fleet based in Virginia.

Omega’s fleet of six ships, guided by spotter aircraft, takes about 125,000 metric tons of menhaden annually, fishing from the lower Chesapeake and along the Atlantic Coast. Menhaden are small, oily fish that are packets of superbly calorie-dense energy, beloved by larger fish like striped bass, and by ospreys. Along with tinier but abundant Bay anchovies and silverside minnows, menhaden form the forage base underpinning the Chesapeake’s productivity.

Watts and others have documented that ospreys are doing worst in the saltier parts of the Chesapeake and Atlantic coastal bays where menhaden make up a critical part of their diets. Only in areas with less salty water, the upper Chesapeake and its tidal rivers, are ospreys producing enough young to sustain their populations — though not enough to offset the plummeting reproduction in the rest of the estuary. 

Prey options in fresher water are more varied, with gizzard shad and catfish providing ample calories. Nesting ospreys with young need to catch five or six fish a day to sustain the family.
...
One of Watts’s graduate students has shown that osprey reproduction can be revived if humans give them extra menhaden. He has heard from “quite a few people” around the Bay who are feeding hungry ospreys. “I’m fine with that,” Watts said, “but it’s not a solution to the current deficits.”

In recent days, schools of "peanut bunker", 3-4 inch Menhaden have been circling close to shore at the beach. Osprey, on the other hand, seem pretty scarce; I have only seen one most days. 

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Happy 250th, America! up in star-spangled glory at the Other McCain.

New Study Finds Chesapeake Ospreys Starving

 CBF, New Study Links Starving Chesapeake Bay Osprey to Menhaden Woes

A new peer-reviewed study links unprecedented levels of starving osprey chicks in the Chesapeake Bay to concerns around menhaden, a nutrient-packed fish that is a key food source for osprey and many other species.

While several factors influence osprey productivity, reduced availability of Atlantic menhaden is likely the primary driver of poor osprey reproduction in saltier parts of the Chesapeake Bay, according to the study. The new report is based on data from the 2024 nesting season and published this week in Frontiers in Marine Science by researchers at the College of William & Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Maryland National-Capital Park and Planning Commission, and the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center.

Research in recent years has documented osprey chicks starving in nests across portions of the Chesapeake Bay where osprey primarily rely on menhaden for food. Osprey in many parts of the region are reproducing at rates well below what’s needed to sustain the population.

Virginia is the only state along the Atlantic coast that still allows industrial menhaden fishing in state waters. That lone remaining industrial operation—Omega Protein and their fishing partner Ocean Harvesters—extracts over 100 million pounds of menhaden from Chesapeake Bay waters each year, with no scientific understanding of the impacts to the Bay’s ecology or coastal communities.

Widespread osprey nesting failures are among several warning signs that the menhaden population is struggling in the Bay, including plummeting catches by small-scale watermen who catch menhaden for bait for local crab fisheries.

In a 2025 letter to state fishery regulators, the Virginia Institute of Marine Science suggested the Virginia Marine Resources Commission give “serious consideration to reducing purse seine fishing in Chesapeake Bay,” given that data to understand impacts of concentrating the industrial menhaden fishery in Virginia waters remains “woefully inadequate.”

The new study notes that “a large degree of uncertainty remains about the status of adult menhaden within the Chesapeake Bay.” It adds, “To more fully resolve this uncertainty, assessments of menhaden abundance could enhance understanding of their role within the ecosystem and support management of consumers that depend on them.”

As part of the budget process that will wrap up later this month, Virginia legislators are considering investing in Chesapeake Bay menhaden research. These data are crucial to understanding the impacts of highly concentrated industrial harvests and how many menhaden a healthy Chesapeake Bay requires.

Recent polling shows that 80 percent of Virginia voters support state funding for a menhaden study.

Well, "Science" has spoken. I suspect the study was designed to find this. Unfortunately that's the way this thing tends to work, at least as long a I was in science. 

On the other hand, I see less Ospreys around our neck of the woods these days. Oh, they're here, but not in the numbers that they were several years ago. 

Menhaden Science Unsettled

 23 News Now, New menhaden assessment signals potential catch reductions in Chesapeake Bay

A new scientific assessment released this week shows that Atlantic menhaden populations are significantly lower than previously estimated, potentially prompting major reductions in catch limits along the East Coast.

According to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), updated coastwide stock assessments indicate the overall biomass of menhaden, a small, schooling fish critical to marine food webs, has declined by 37 percent compared to earlier estimates. The findings suggest that current harvest levels may be unsustainable, and forecasts indicate catch limits may need to be cut by half to give the species a better than 50 percent chance of recovery.

The ASMFC’s menhaden management board is scheduled to meet on October 28 to review the new data and consider potential changes to the fishery’s catch limits. The board will also continue discussions on how to manage menhaden harvests in the Chesapeake Bay, where ecological warning signs have been growing.

Menhaden serve as an important food source for many species, including osprey, whales, and striped bass. In recent years, research from the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary and the U.S. Geological Survey has linked declining osprey chick survival rates in parts of the Chesapeake Bay to reduced availability of menhaden.

While the new coastwide assessment includes updates to mortality and population estimates, it does not specifically evaluate the effects of concentrated fishing activity within the Bay. A separate study focused on the Chesapeake Bay menhaden population has been delayed, reportedly due to lobbying efforts by Omega Protein, the Virginia-based company that operates the nation’s largest menhaden fishery.

Omega Protein harvests more than 100 million pounds of menhaden annually in Virginia waters, primarily for fish oil and animal feed. The company has not yet commented publicly on the new assessment.

Local bait fishermen have also reported sharp declines in their catch, which fell from 5.4 million pounds in 2019 to less than 1 million pounds in 2024, according to the Virginia Marine Resources Commission.

Public concern over the issue has been growing. Recent bipartisan polling found that more than 90 percent of Virginians support measures to ensure more menhaden remain in the Bay.

In a statement, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Forage Campaign Manager Will Poston said the new data “confirms the alarm bells we’ve been hearing for years” and urged regulators to follow the science and reduce coastwide harvest levels.

My personal, unscientific observation is that the large schools of adult Menhaden that we used to see in our waters are all but absent in the last 10 years.  We still see a lot of "peanut" sized bunker, 2-3 inches. Hardly big enough for an Osprey to be worth diving on.  

Forget It Jake, It's Baltimore

Baltimore Banner, Thousands of dead fish flood the Baltimore harbor, again

Inner Harbor tourists gawked at the aftermath Tuesday: thousands of dead Atlantic menhaden floating on the surface.

The aquatic annihilation — and its lingering stench — is a reminder of the challenges facing the harbor and the broader Chesapeake Bay.

State regulators say no single pollution event caused this fish kill, but point instead to decomposing algae and other organic material — the result of widespread nutrient pollution from runoff and wastewater overflows that has depleted oxygen in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries for decades.

Close to 25,000 fish have died in the event, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment, whose inspectors evaluated the area Monday. The fish kill stretched all the way around the harbor, from Canton through the Inner Harbor to Locust Point, agency spokesman Jay Apperson said.

This week’s carnage comes about a month after a sudden dip in temperatures seems to have triggered two even bigger menhaden die-offs in the harbor. Unseasonably cool late August temperatures helped to deplete oxygen that bay denizens need to survive.

25,000 isn't a lot of Menhaden when it comes to supporting all the Ospreys, Striped Bass and Bluefish that want to eat them, but when they're dead and rotting on your beach, they sure do stink. 

Beach Report 8/27/25

I got a late start today after a couple of errands, but caught the most of the low tide. 

 Great weather today, with temperatures in the lower 70s, a light north wind, and a few puffy white clouds in an otherwise blue sky. I can't believe this is still August.

A pretty good day for fossicking, with this 1 5/8 inch extinct White Shark (Carcharodon hastalis) tooth being the standout by far. 

A bit of a downer, a dead Osprey on the beach. The victim of hunger, or foul (fowl) play, an eagle attack?  I didn't probe to find out. The last time I reported a dead Osprey to DNR, they told me they don't check them, like they would with an eagle.

Virginia Ospreys in Trouble?

Nesting pairs of Osprey in 1987 and 2025

Chesapeake Bay Mag, Osprey Pairs Down to Single Digits on Ocean Side of ESVA

Dr. Bryan Watts, Director of the Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) at William & Mary, has released an inventory of active osprey nests along Virginia’s Eastern Shore Seaside. His report’s title tells the ugly story: “Osprey Population along the Seaside of the Delmarva Peninsula has Collapsed.” Where a CCB survey in 1987 recorded 83 pairs, this year’s survey recorded only nine pairs between Fisherman Island and the Chincoteague Causeway.

 

“We’ve been watching them since the 1990s,” Dr. Watts tells us, “ and the loss rate has really ratcheted up in the last few years.” This population collapse is a concern not only for the loss of an iconic, well-loved bird but also for what it says about the condition of this coastal environment that appears otherwise pristine.

Why the failure? Dr. Watts’s careful summary says: “The underlying causes of this population decline are unclear. Although there have been changes in nesting substrates (like duck blinds, dead trees, navigational aids, or nesting platforms) over time, the availability of nesting substrate does not appear to be a primary factor. Suitable structures remain widely available and many substrates that were used for extended periods are now vacant.

“It is possible that bald eagles may have impacted osprey along the seaside. The bald eagle population within the area has more than tripled since the 1980s. However, the density of eagles continues to be a small fraction of that found within the upper tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay where ospreys continue to thrive.”

That's interesting, I was just speculating about that a few days ago. Bald Eagle commonly rob Ospreys of their prey. Ospreys are great fisherman, but at some point, that has to impact the amount of food they can bring home to feed their chicks. And Bald Eagles seem even more efficient at stealing food from Ospreys than Ospreys are at fishing. I don't think I've ever seen an eagle fail to force an Osprey to drop it's fish.

He goes on to report, “The most likely cause of the decline is prey availability. However, no osprey diet studies have ever been conducted within this site, and we know very little about trends in fish availability. During the 1970s and 1980s, the highest density of nesting pairs was skewed to the southern portion of the area around Fisherman and Mockhorn Islands. These birds could be observed flying out to the mouth of the Chesapeake to forage. Pairs have declined by more than 90% within this portion of the study area.”

When looking for causes, questions arise about the availability of menhaden for ospreys to eat in the “southern portion of the area around Fisherman and Mockhorn Islands.” Some believe menhaden industry giant Omega Protein is competing with the ospreys for their food.

I'm beginning to believe the Osprey population in our Mid Bay region is following the same trajectory, just a few years later.  Our local Osprey population seems to have thinned. I only saw a single Osprey plying the waters off our beach today. There were plenty of peanut sized (2-3 inch) Menhaden dead on the beach, it doesn't seem like lack of them is the problem. 

So, Stripped Bass are in trouble, crabs are in trouble, and the Ospreys are in trouble. I'm sure satisfied the with $25 billion or so we've dumped into the Bay's bureaucracy in the last 30 years. 

Are the Ospreys Starving?

Another article on the possible connection between Menhaden fishing, and the struggling Osprey populations in the Bay. At What's Up Media, The Osprey-Menhaden Bay Connection

Each spring, birders eagerly await the return of ospreys to the Chesapeake Bay—a welcome sight that signals the end of winter. An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 breeding pairs of ospreys live in the Chesapeake Bay, which is home to the largest breeding osprey population in the world. Since ospreys are sensitive to changes in their environment, they serve as a monitor of the health of the Bay.

So, when 2024 breeding performance results released by the College of William & Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) showed that osprey chicks continue to starve in their nests in portions of the Bay where they typically depend on menhaden—a small, silvery, nutrient-packed fish—for food, the findings intensified ongoing, decades-long concerns.

 

According to a press release issued on September 13, 2024, by the CCB, osprey chicks aren’t surviving at rates that sustain the population. A survey monitored 571 osprey pairs in 12 sites in Virginia and Maryland during the nesting season (March through August). Ten study areas were located within the main stem of the Bay, where salinity exceeded 10 parts per thousand (ppt), and ospreys are highly dependent on menhaden. Two additional study areas (used for comparison) were located on upper tributaries within tidal fresh waters, where salinity was less than 1 ppt, and ospreys feed primarily on catfish and gizzard shad.

The generally accepted reproductive rate for population maintenance is 1.15 young/pair. Breeding performance varied between the higher-salinity sites—ranging from minor, moderate, and major deficit. However, the reproductive rate within the tidal freshwater sites was 1.36 young/pair, which is above the maintenance target (surplus).

“It’s clear to researchers that ospreys are struggling due to food stress, but the starvation issue is mostly confined to the main stem of the Bay, where waters are greater than 10 ppt salinity,” says Bryan Watts, Ph.D., director of the CCB. “We do not know why menhaden have become less available to ospreys. The osprey-menhaden issue is a moving target. Some have suggested that ongoing harvest, warming waters, water quality, or other factors are impacting menhaden in the Bay. However, we do know that osprey broods [groups of chicks] are starving in their nests and that there is not enough menhaden in their diet to support sustainable reproductive rates.”

Snakehead! It's what's for dinner!

 

In addition to starvation, scientists and researchers are also observing uncharacteristic behaviors among ospreys. According to Watts, a large number of osprey pairs didn’t lay clutches during the 2024 nesting season. This is the first time that this behavior has been documented on a large scale within the Chesapeake Bay. Researchers believe that the most likely explanation is that the females didn’t reach the nutritional condition required to produce eggs.

Single-chick broods and asymmetric broods were also widespread throughout the Bay in 2024. Asymmetry develops when food coming into the nest is inadequate to feed all of the chicks—resulting in a dominance hierarchy, which allows the dominant chick to monopolize access to food. Depending on the available food supply, one or all of the chicks may starve.

For what it's worth, I'm beginning to give this hypothesis a little more credence. Ospreys have been noticeably in short supply in our neighborhood this year. I've seen them a couple of times, but usually, by this time of year, Ospreys would be hunting out in front of the beach almost constantly.  Ospreys return to the same nest every year, which suggests that one or more pairs failed to return from their winter vacations. I do wonder about the role of Bald Eagles in this matter too. Ospreys bringing food back to the nest have to run the gauntlet of hungry eagles to get to the nest. From what I've observed, about one in ten catches results in a steal from an eagle. If fish are a limiting resource, that could definitely affect the Osprey nesting success. 

Beach Report 3/20/25 - Spring is Sprung

And it was windy and warm, on the Vernal Equinox, blowing hard from the SE, and we had lots of waves and sand.

I only found 1 tooth, and it was unremarkable, and a remarkably small crab claw. I got splashed going around the rocks, and came home a little wet.

But the real news is that I saw an Osprey for the first time today. St. Patrick's Day is the traditional arrival date for Ospreys in Maryland, but I swear ours wait a week or so, hoping for warmer weather. I didn't see it dive, it just flew off shore north to south, as if re-thinking this whole migrating north thing.

Virginia Proposes Menhaden Population Study

 ABC 8 News, Fish Fight: Battle in Richmond Over Tiny Fish Could Have Huge Impact on Virginia and U.S. Economy!

The debate over whether to fund a study on the status of Atlantic menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay will be taken up again in the Virginia General Assembly. Measures to study the forage species vital to nearly every fish on the Atlantic Coast have been derailed in past sessions, the most recent was last year when a study proposal was tabled.

Two proposals have been introduced by Del. Paul Milde (R-Stafford) in this session. Virginia House Bill 2713 (HB2713) would require the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to conduct a three-year study of menhaden numbers in Virginia’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay, as well as the impact of various fisheries on menhaden populations. Milde has also introduced a budget amendment to fund the study.

“There are no modern-day studies of menhaden populations in the bay,” said Del. Milde. “It makes sense that we need to find out where we really are with the menhaden, and if there are any connections between rockfish populations, osprey populations, and the menhaden catch.”

Angling and conservation groups have suggested that industrial reduction fishing for menhaden has affected their numbers, and have led to an adverse impact on gamefish, aquatic mammals, and birds that depend on menhaden for forage.

Virginia is the only state on the Atlantic Coast to allow industrial reduction fishing in estuaries like the Chesapeake. Only one company, Reedville-based Omega Protein/Ocean Harvesters practices industrial reduction fishing for menhaden on the bay.

Omega says menhaden numbers are strong and sustainable. The company points to coast-wide studies to back that claim.

Just speaking from personal observation, there are fewer large schools of big Menhaden working around the waters in the mid-Bay in summer than there were when I first arrived. Is it a function of the reduction fishery taking them all before they can migrate up this far? I don't know, but I know it's not helping.

VIM Scientists Question Osprey/Menhaden Narrative

WHRO, VIMS scientists critique research linking osprey declines to menhaden industry

Research that touches on menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay has long been contentious, because it helps inform how officials choose to regulate the controversial fishery.

The latest disagreement is playing out in scientific literature. Three scientists at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, which conducts research for state regulators, recently published a formal critique of a study linking declines in the local osprey population to the menhaden industry.

The study they critiqued came from another arm of William & Mary: the Center for Conservation Biology, which studies birds.

 

The center has monitored ospreys for years. Director Bryan Watts said they’ve now seen the birds struggling to reproduce for more than a decade.

His team published a study earlier this year recording the lowest number of osprey chicks since the 1970s. They said the baby birds are dying of starvation, and posit that’s because there aren’t enough menhaden for them to eat.

In their new critique of that study, the VIMS scientists say there’s simply not enough data to make that claim.

“It may turn out that the linkage is real, and I'm certainly willing to admit that, but right now I just don't feel like we can say that,” said Rob Latour, a professor who has long studied menhaden.

 

Latour said he respects his William & Mary colleagues’ research on osprey, and VIMS is also concerned about the struggling population.

But he felt compelled to write the commentary after seeing members of the public use the study to ask for changes in policy.

“There was so much pressure being put on industry and policymakers to make decisions, and the scientific basis for doing that was not very solid at all,” he said. “So the point of the commentary was to give an alternative perspective.”

This is an example of how science is supposed to work. Some scientists, those with expertise in Ospreys advance the hypothesis that lower Menhaden numbers in the Bay caused by the reduction fishery is causing Osprey chicks to suffer malnutrition. Other scientist, more familiar with the Menhaden data doubt that conclusion. Now, we need the two groups to get together to construct reasonable tests of the hypothesis, not easy given the large scale of the system. 

Beach Report 10/21/24

A warm fall day, nearly 75F, with blue sky, and calm seas,

Even though we hit the low tide nearly exactly, and there was lots of gravel and shell, teeth were pretty elusive.

Georgia found this exceptional, if slightly flawed White Shark tooth up in the dry. 1 and 11/16ths inches. It's at least 1/8th inch longer than the previous best for the year. If I thought I had the skill, I'd try to repair it with some gray epoxy.

The local crabber is still working. And I even saw one lonely Osprey. I yelled at it to go south for the season.

Beach Report 10/15/24

We had our first night below 50 F since spring, and today was pretty chilly, in the upper 50s. The sun was in and out but mostly out.

It was a pretty high tide, and pretty sandy but it was calm enough that I got well up the beach, so I only found 7 teeth.

A few young Ospreys are still hanging around, and fishing for the peanut bunker (small Menhaden) that teem off the beach. They need to move on.

The GBH's seem to be everywhere, too. This one and another got into a spat over the best fishing spot.

Beach Report 10/5/24

A fine fall day, with temperatures creeping up near 75 F. You can barely make out on of the Ospreys still here (or visiting from the north on its way south).

 A big wind came up around 9 AM this morning, and the tide was high, surf was rough, the beach was sandy, and fossil hunting tough. We managed 9 sharks teeth, a drum tooth, and 1 lousy crab claw.

A local trying to master his sail kite for kite boarding. We watched a while, but he never got it up while we were there.

Beach Reports 9/26/24

Today was a bookend of yesterday, mid 70s, overcast, and only moderately windy.

At mid tide, going down, the beach was mostly sandy. 

Across the Bay. Marine Traffic identifies it as CG Eagle, a Coast Guard training ship with an interesting history:

Eagle commenced its existence in Nazi Germany as Horst Wessel, a ship of the Gorch Fock class. Horst Wessel was an improvement on the original design. She was larger in dimension and her spars were all steel, unlike Gorch Fock's wooden yards. SSS Horst Wessel began life as Schiff ("ship") 508 at Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Germany in 1936. . . She was the second ship in the class to be built, following the class namesake Gorch Fock. Rudolf Hess gave the speech at her launch in the presence of Adolf Hitler, and Horst Wessel's mother christened the new ship with a bottle of champagne.

Not a lot of teeth, 13 in all, but I thought I'd showcase this cute little Snaggletooth.

The Ospreys are still around. We're not sure about the Hummingbirds. We didn't see the female at the feeder this morning.

Update: Afternoon Hummingbird sighting.

Beach Report 9/24/24

Another totally overcast day, with temperatures in the upper 60s. 

In the end, we were chased off the beach by a rain shower.

The tide was nominally low, but quite high. Still there was a lot of shell hash and gravel to check out.

My first tooth was this fine little White Shark tooth. Georgia found just the tip from one that would have been a monster.

I found this Snaggletooth on the way back in the beach where I'd already looked on the way up. Did I miss it the first time, or was it uncovered by wave action? 

23 teeth between us and an inordinate number of crab claws, 4.

The crabbers are still working.

So are the Ospreys.