После снятия с охраны рыболовство атлантического менхадена угрожает популяции рыбоядных орлов

NJ ospreys not in clear after removal from endangered list | Exclusive Just months after ospreys were removed from New Jersey's list of endangered species, scientists went on to document the worst breeding season in more than 30 years. Now, the 2026 season is looking to be even worse, according to Ben Wurst, senior wildlife biologist with Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey and lead of the New Jersey Osprey Project. Ospreys were officially removed from New Jersey's list of endangered species in January 2025, a significant milestone reflecting decades of successful conservation efforts for a population that was once nearly depleted. However, during the breeding season that followed, Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey saw statewide osprey productivity fall by 56% compared to the previous five-year average, and 57% of monitored nests failed to produce any young. New Jersey is not alone. According to the wildlife foundation, scientists are documenting similar declines in osprey productivity across the mid-Atlantic, particularly in the Chesapeake Bay, which supports roughly 10,000 nesting pairs and has long been considered the global stronghold for ospreys. Researchers have linked poor breeding success in parts of the bay to a shortage of Atlantic menhaden, a key fish that acts as the foundation of the coastal food web, the wildlife foundation says. Now, as nest monitoring in New Jersey continues during the 2026 breeding season, Wurst says that the results are looking even more grim. "What we saw this year when we went out and did our early season surveys was simply a reduction in egg laying by females in the spring. This is a sign of food stress," Wurst told NorthJersey.com, explaining that some female ospreys were unable to get into egg laying condition to begin with due to lack of food. In New Jersey, ospreys typically arrive to the breeding grounds in late March, begin courtship and nest building in early April, and lay their eggs between mid-April and early May. Between late August and early September, they leave New Jersey again for winter migration. In some osprey pairs that did lay and incubate eggs this season, males may not have been able to find enough food, according to Wurst. In this case, females had to leave the nest in search of food, exposing the eggs to the elements and potential predators. Another sign of food stress that Wurst has noticed in New Jersey is brood reduction. This is where the first hatchling has an advantage in age and dominance, allowing it to outcompete its siblings for food. In extreme cases, according to Wurst, young ospreys are dying of starvation after the adults abandon the nest because there simply is not enough food. "This year it really started in the spring with just seeing less females actually lay eggs," Wurst said. "Then it progressed throughout the nesting season and was very evident in July when we went back and conducted re-checks at nests that had young. That's where many nests that we went back and checked, where they actually produced young, in many of them those young starved to death and we found remains of those young with them either in the nest dead or underneath the nest." Wurst continued, "Many of those nests were also just abandoned by the adults, where they basically just left their nesting territories and moved to other areas where there was more plentiful prey for them to survive." Evidence suggests that reduced availability of key forage fish, like Atlantic menhaden, may be contributing to food stress during the breeding season, according to Conserve Wildlife Foundation's 2025 New Jersey Osprey Project Report. "As a top-tier predator, ospreys serve as an important ecological indicator, providing valuable insight into whether forage fish populations are sufficient enough to support the broader coastal food web," reads the report. "When prey availability is limited for ospreys, it may signal wider challenges for the coastal ecosystem, with potential implications not only for other marine species but also for coastal economies that depend on healthy, functioning marine systems." Atlantic menhaden are common in estuaries and coastal waters from Nova Scotia to northern Florida, according to Save Coastal Wildlife. They are small, flat-bodied fish with forked tails. Menhaden are filter feeders that convert microscopic phytoplankton into energy, which supports a number of other species such as striped bass, tuna, whales, dolphins, and ospreys. Menhaden have immense ecological value. They are rich in oil and contain twice as many calories as other fish, according to CWF, which says, "When they become scarce in nearshore waters during the breeding season, the effects ripple throughout the ecosystem." On top of that, the menhaden fishery is the largest industrial fishery by volume on the East Coast. Instead of being caught for human consumption, menhaden are processed into fish meal and fish oil to be used in aquaculture feeds, livestock and pet foods, nutritional supplements, fertilizers, and a variety of industrial products. These fish serve as ospreys' primary food source and played a leading role in their recovery in New Jersey, according to Wurst, who says that they have become less abundant over the last few years. But why are they becoming scarce? According to Wurst, nobody knows for sure. "We don't really know what is causing this because the fishery is labeled as not overfished or overfishing is not occurring, but we're just seeing instances where this fish is just not available to ospreys on these nearshore areas where historically they have been," said Wurst. "No one really has an answer as to why this is happening." The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which is responsible for managing a sustainable fishery, says that Atlantic menhaden are not overfished and overfishing is not occurring. However, some researchers and organizations, such as Save Coastal Wildlife, do contribute the decline of Atlantic menhaden to overfishing. "The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has concluded that menhaden are not being overfished, but critics argue that this assessment fails to account for the importance of menhaden in coastal ecosystems," reads the Save Coastal Wildlife website. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says that the menhaden catch must be cut in half to provide a better than 50% chance of a sustainable harvest in the future. Right now, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has a draft addendum open for public comment, considering options to reduce the Chesapeake Bay reduction fishery cap by up to 50% and create quota periods to distribute the menhaden harvest more evenly throughout the fishing season. The public can submit comments at any time until 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 9. Although their status is listed as stable, Wurst stressed the importance of continued monitoring of species like ospreys. "If we weren't actually monitoring their nests then we wouldn't know what was happening," he said. "For us as an organization, we don't get any federal or state funding to do this work. We rely on a lot of volunteers to go out and conduct these surveys, to collect this data, which then we provide to our partners and policymakers to hopefully make decisions that can make sure that this fish is plentiful for the many predators in the ecosystem that rely on them." This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ ospreys not in clear after removal from endangered list | Exclusive