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mahatmakanejeeves

(61,276 posts)
Sun Sep 22, 2024, 06:11 AM Sep 22

Mystery of disappearing ospreys might have controversial explanation

Last edited Sun Sep 22, 2024, 07:11 AM - Edit history (1)

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.

{snip}

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
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Mystery of disappearing ospreys might have controversial explanation (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Sep 22 OP
Interesting.... Hope22 Sep 22 #1
some businesses et tu Sep 22 #2
So sad. Magnificent photo. Joinfortmill Sep 22 #3
Heard menhaden down in Maine. From locals. cachukis Sep 22 #4
No matter. Lobsters are moving north anyway. paleotn Sep 22 #6
Sadly. cachukis Sep 22 #7
Rape of the sea continues. paleotn Sep 22 #5
Don't eat farm raised fish. Clouds Passing Sep 22 #8
Or at least limit yourself to fish raised on vegetarian diets. hunter Sep 22 #10
👇👇👇👁️👁️ Goonch Sep 22 #9

Hope22

(3,020 posts)
1. Interesting....
Sun Sep 22, 2024, 07:03 AM
Sep 22

Meanwhile on Lake Erie Osprey are thriving, something we haven’t noticed before in our 29 years of sailing here.

paleotn

(19,370 posts)
6. No matter. Lobsters are moving north anyway.
Sun Sep 22, 2024, 08:28 AM
Sep 22

The Gulf of Maine is warming faster than just about any stretch of ocean on the planet.

paleotn

(19,370 posts)
5. Rape of the sea continues.
Sun Sep 22, 2024, 08:22 AM
Sep 22

And for what? A buck? Destroying food webs and ecosystems with our insatiable grab for resources. And fleeting economic gain. Humans kind of suck really.

hunter

(39,003 posts)
10. Or at least limit yourself to fish raised on vegetarian diets.
Sun Sep 22, 2024, 10:59 AM
Sep 22
The Key to Sustainable Fish Farming? Vegetarian Fish

Most anchovies and sardines don’t end up on pizzas. Instead, they go to processing plants where they are turned into pellets to feed farmed fish. Now scientists and entrepreneurs are finding ways to create vegetarian diets for species like trout, which may lessen the strain on over-fished oceans.

World demand for seafood is rising, but many of the world’s oceans are already overfished. As a result, fish farming is booming. By 2030 nearly two-thirds of seafood worldwide will be farm-raised, according to a World Bank report issued last month.

From the environmental perspective, that is creating a major problem: millions of tons of wild fish like anchovies, sardines and mackerel are being caught in the ocean to feed farm-raised fish like salmon. In many cases, it can take three pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed fish.

-- more --

https://www.kqed.org/quest/64593/vegetarian-farmed-fish-may-be-key-to-sustainable-aquaculture


Same goes for chicken and eggs.

In a sane world we'd ban commercial fishing, just as commercial hunting was banned long ago.

Remember the passenger pigeon. They were hunted to extinction.

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