Osprey came back from the brink once. Now chicks are dying in nests, and some blame overfishing

Photo: Flying into Mare Island

A young osprey brings a portion of a fish over to its sibling as they share a meal in a nest on Mare Island in Vallejo. Many of the fledgling osprey have already started to leave their nests.

Osprey came back from the brink once. Now chicks are dying in nests. Some blame overfishing.

The osprey is in decline in the Chesapeake Bay, one of its key territories, and some scientists blame overfishing of menhaden, an important food for the birds.

Osprey lovers cry foul at fishing industry's billion-pound annual haul of bird's precious food source

Stepping onto an old wooden duck blind in the middle of the York River, Bryan Watts looks down at a circle of sticks and pine cones on the weathered, guano-spattered platform. It’s a failed osprey nest, taken over by diving terns. “The birds never laid here this year,” said Watts, near the mouth of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay. “And that’s a pattern we’ve been seeing these last couple of years.” Watts has a more intimate relationship with ospreys t…

Column: Halt menhaden harvest until studies determine its effects

With summer in full swing, Chesapeake Bay fishermen, birders and environmentalists are once again faced with the harsh reality that menhaden, the most important fish in the sea, are scarce. Even Omega Protein, the Canadian-owned menhaden reduction fishery (i.e. reduces the fish to animal feed), and its partner Ocean Harvesters, with its spotter planes and huge purse seine nets, is having trouble finding them. Research on osprey reproduction in t…

Osprey came back from the brink once; now chicks are dying in nests, and some blame overfishing

The osprey is in decline in one of its key territories and some scientists blame overfishing of menhaden, an important food for the birds.

Osprey Came Back From the Brink Once. Now Chicks Are Dying in Nests ...