Mystery of disappearing ospreys might have controversial explanation

A new study suggests osprey chicks are starving in parts of the Chesapeake Bay because of a lack of menhaden, a primary source of food but also a major industry.


An osprey glides over the Chesapeake Bay. (Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post)

By Gregory S. Schneider
September 22, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

When Casey Shaw and Bryan Watts motored their Boston Whaler into Craney Island Creek this summer looking for osprey nests, they hoped to find a pair of birds on every channel marker. Instead they found none. … “It was heartbreaking,” said Shaw, who works for the conservation group Elizabeth River Project in Hampton Roads.

The mystery of vanishing ospreys — a bird of prey that feeds on fish and is not considered endangered — has puzzled homeowners, boaters and conservationists around the Chesapeake Bay the past few years. A new study claims to explain the decline, but the findings have aggravated a much bigger controversy. … Watts, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary, wrote earlier this month that osprey chicks are starving to death in areas of the bay where their primary food source is a small, nutrient-rich fish called menhaden.

Environmentalists have seized on the report to support their fight against the menhaden-harvesting industry in Virginia, which is pitted in a long-running battle to hold off regulatory limits. Sport fishermen are allied with the environmentalists, arguing that industrial harvesting has depleted the menhaden supply and harmed other species of birds and fish that feed on it, such as striped bass. … “With the osprey findings — that’s a big wake-up call,” said Steve Atkinson of the Virginia Saltwater Sportfishing Association. “It clearly shows there’s an ecosystem impact.”

The company at the center of the battle is Omega Protein, which operates out of Reedville on Virginia’s Northern Neck. It’s a waterman town, named after a menhaden fisherman named Capt. Elijah Reed who came down from New England in the 1870s. Boats run in and out of Reedville bringing menhaden to a processing plant that grinds the fish into meal and oil — partly to feed farm-raised fish in Canada.

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By Gregory S. Schneider
Greg Schneider covers Virginia from the Richmond bureau. He was The Washington Post's business editor for more than seven years, and before that served stints as deputy business editor, national security editor and technology editor. He has also covered aviation security, the auto industry and the defense industry for The Post.follow on X @SchneiderG