There has been an osprey die-off happening in Mid-Atlantic states and it’s been going on for a few years now.
These charismatic, birds of prey are much-loved for their high-diving fishing techniques and their nesting on or close to shore – they can feel like part of the family for some humans as ospreys nest in the same location year after year.
So many people find joy in seeing the ospreys return every spring like clockwork – they are our harbinger of spring here along the Chesapeake.
But that joy seems to be dwindling along with the number of successful nests.
As a reporter, I haven’t written about this osprey die-off before; the reason is I’m too involved in it as a bird of prey rescuer, I love ospreys and I can’t be unbiased.
As reporters, we have to keep bias out of news articles, but in an editorial, it’s ok to share our opinions, bias and all. This is an editorial.
If you’re not interested in reading sad animal stories, stop here and don’t read any further.
When this die-off started, we began seeing baby ospreys jumping out of their nests, presumedly to find food. They were starving, their parents had left them in the nest and never came back. Once on the ground, the baby ospreys couldn’t do anything other than suffer – on an athletic field, on a floating dock, on a lawn, etc. Yes, there were still some in their nests.
This happened again and again and again and again – starving baby ospreys.
Now what we’re seeing is adult ospreys building nests, maybe laying eggs or maybe not, then just leaving. If there are eggs, they won’t hatch.
One nest failure after another.
You should know compassion fatigue is as fucking real as these problems with birds.
Sorry, not sorry, for the language – I’m upset and I’m biased that though ospreys have sprung back since the DDT days, we’re losing them again because the commercial menhaden fishing industry is depleting our waters of what has been called “the most important fish in the sea.”
Though watermen and conservationists have been complaining about the commercial menhaden fishing industry for years, the ospreys, being the proverbial canary in the coal mine, have made it abundantly clear that not enough is being done to stop this slaughter in our waters.
Ospreys eat fish – it is almost all they eat. As such, they are the proverbial canary in the coal mine when it comes to the health of our waters, or as one recent study (see below) puts it, “Ospreys are well-known sentinels for aquatic ecosystems both as indicators of environmental contaminants and as metrics for fish stocks.”
And the ospreys, through die-off, are telling us there’s a problem.
“The Chesapeake Bay supports a large osprey population that has been responsive to previous changes in ecosystem conditions (Watts and Paxton, 2007; Lazarus et al., 2015a, Lazarus et al., 2016),” the study states. “During the 2024 breeding season, osprey productivity within high salinity reaches was well below the level required for population maintenance. Although several factors are operating within this ecosystem that may affect productivity, we suggest that Atlantic menhaden availability is the primary driver of low reproduction.”
One more time in case you missed that. “… we suggest that Atlantic menhaden availability is the primary driver of low reproduction.”
Let’s understand how this works with areas that have ospreys, but don’t normally see a lot of menhaden. How is this lack of menhaden an issue with these areas?
What can we do about this problem?
This is reversible according to some.
“As suggested by Poole (1982) food stress and associated reproductive failure in ospreys are reversible if fish stocks are managed to fulfill their role within the ecosystem,” states this newest study.
“If fish stocks are managed” depends on legislators to act – given that those overfishing menhaden cannot stop themselves from doing it.
With so much the wildlife at risk, including aquatic, ospreys could be just the beginning of this die-off and they have made it abundantly clear that something must be done if we want to continue seeing them.
Legislators must act before it’s too late. We have the chance to save a species and we really should.
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Donna L. Cole is an award-winning investigative and multimedia reporter. She’s also a bird of prey rescuer.
They are such gorgeous birds. One of my favorites at Owl Moon!
This problem needs to be confronted legislatively immediately.
Donna, this has been going on FOREVER! Is there a suggested legislator to address our concern too? What about the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission? What are they waiting for? They say they need studies, approve the study, then don’t fund the study.
There have been several studies already. The most recent is embedded in my post. Yes, the commission members are a great start, but unless a member is one of your elected officials you might have trouble contacting them. I would suggest contacting both your state representatives and federal. Let them know there’s an issue with ospreys starving in large part because of the commercial overfishing of menhaden. There’s only one company that is doing that kind of fishing and they’re located in Virginia where the Virginia lawmakers continue giving them carte blanche.
Hello Donna, thank you for your editorial. If you could share a sample letter I would be happy to send something to my representative.
Too many of our state legislators take donations from the Canadian-owned menhaden company. A responsible company would reduce their harvest in the bay. Instead, they double down.