Bryan Watts steps on an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River and looks at a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered platform limited by Guano. It is a failed Osprey nest that was taken over by diving harvest.
“The birds have never laid here this year,” said Watts near the mouth of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. “And that’s a pattern that we have seen in recent years.”
Watts has a closer relationship with Eagle When most people with a bird – he climbed to their nests to free them from plastic bags, to feed them by hand and to monitor their eggs with telescopic mirrors.
The fish-eating raptor, which is known for gymnastics dives and whistling chirps, is a success story of American nature conservation. After pesticides and other dangers had almost removed the species from large parts of the country, the Hawkart -Karte bird recovered after the ban on DDT in 1972 and now counts in the Thousands in the USA
But Watts has documented an alarming trend. The birds that breed in many parts of the United States will not remove enough chicks around their main population center of the Chesapeake bay. The long -time biologist accuses the decline of Menhaden, a small school fish for the Osprey diet. Without eating menhaden, hunger and dying the chicks in nests, said Watts.
Fish eagles are an environmental indicator
Watts’s claim and environmental groups made him and environmental groups in the fishing industry, the unions and sometimes the government’s regulatory authorities. Menhaden is valuable for fish oil, fish meal and agricultural food and bait.
Us fishermen have caught at least £ 1.1 billion in menhade every year since 1951. Members of the industry accuse their sustainability and said that the decline in fish eagles could have nothing to do with fish.
But without help, the Osprey population could fall at levels that have not been seen since the dark days DdtWatts, director of the Center for Nature Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, said Virginia.
“The fishing eagle shout quite loudly:” Hey, there is not enough menhaden to reproduce us successfully, “said Watts.” And we should listen to you that you will be fully informed on the fishing page, and we should take the precautionary measures on the fishing management side. But that didn’t win the day at that time. ”
Ducks in connection with Menhaden in studies
Watts, who has been studying Osprey on the Chesapeake for decades Magazines. He said that a simple statistics – in order to maintain the population, must need Osprey couples on average 1.15 chicks per year.
Osprey reproduced at this level in the 1980s, but today it is less than half of it in some areas around the Chesapeake main stem, said Watts. In particularly desperate areas, they don’t even reproduce in a tenth of this level, he said. And the decline in the available menhade corresponds to the areas of nesting failure, said Watts.
Also referred to as pogies or bunkers, the oily menhade are particularly important for young birds because they are more nutritious than other fish in the sea. Osprey “Reproductive performance is inextricably linked to the availability and abundance of menhaden. Watts wrote in a 2023 study Published within limits in Marine Science.
Conservationists have been concerned for years and said that too many menhade had been removed to maintain their crucial role in the Ocean Food chain. The historian H. Bruce Franklin went so far as his 2007 book on Menhaden on the title “The most important fish in the sea. “”
The fishing industry presses back
Menhaden helps to maintain one of the world’s largest fishing worth more than 200 million US dollars in the Docks in 2023. The fish are of crucial importance for valuable commercial goals such as Maine Hummer. They are also loved by sports fises.
Modern industry is dominated by Omega Protein, a Reedville, Virginia company, a company that is a subsidiary of the Canadian Aquaculture Giant Cooke. The harvest of the Menhaden is carried out by an American company, Ocean Harners, which is based in Reedville, and contracts with Omega that process the processing. The companies crowded to the idea that fishing is the cause of the decline of the fish eagle, even though they recognized that fewer menhade appear in some parts of the bay.
The federal data show that the Osprey breeding decreases in many parts of the country, including the time when Menhaden is not harvested at all, said Ben Landry, an Omega spokesman. Climate change, pollution and development could play a role, said Landry and others with the company.
To accuse the guilt of fishing, “only about environmental participation groups have an impact on the process,” said Landry.
New rules could be on the road
The Menhaden fishing is managed by the Marine Fisherie Commission of the Atlantic State, an intergovernmental body that creates the rules and set fishing rates. Called up questions about Ospreys, a working group created to discuss the pension management of the species in Chesapeake Bay.
In April, this group proposed several potential management systems, including seasonal closings, restrictions on quotas or days at sea and restrictions in the types of fishing equipment. The process of creating new rules could begin this summer, said James Boyle, coordinator for fishing management plan at the Commission.
The Osprey population has actually shown declines in some areas since 2012, but it is important to remember that the bird’s population is much larger than before DDT’s ban, said Boyle.
“Since the DDT era there has been a great increase in the Osprey population,” said Boyle, referring to federal data, which have shown a six-fold increase in the Osprey population along the Atlantic coast since the 1960s.
Environmentalists say that Vogel’s decline could deteriorate
Every decline is too much for a number of environmental groups. This irritates some workers who are worried that the fishing industry will lose more jobs.
Kenny Pinkard, retired Vice President of the UFCW Local 400’s Executive Board and long -time fisherman in Virginia, said that he was of the opinion that the industry would be made sinful.
“There are some people who just don’t want to see us in business at all,” he said.
But Chris Moore, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said the country risked to lose an iconic bird if no measures are taken. He said WatT’s studies show that the fish eagle will fail without access to Menhaden.
“Osprey was a success story,” said Moore. “We are in a situation in which you do not replace your numbers. We will actually be in a situation in which we take back a lot.”
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Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.
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This story was supported by the financing of the Walton Family Foundation. The AP is only responsible for all content.
