A group of Middle Peninsula residents, concerned about the plight of the osprey population in the lower Chesapeake Bay, will hold a meeting from 1-3 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 29, in the Community Room of Gloucester Public Library, Main Street Center.
The resurgence of ospreys over the past several decades from near extinction caused by DDT is one of America’s great wildlife success stories, according to Michael Academia of the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William and Mary.
But today, researchers have found evidence that ospreys in the lower Chesapeake Bay are in trouble again, this time as a result of inadequate supply of menhaden, a crucial forage fish, a release said.
Osprey reproduction in the lower Chesapeake Bay is declining at an alarming rate. Surveys conducted in June by The Center for Conservation Biology found that of 167 osprey nests surveyed, only 17 nests produced, with a total population of 21 young. The 2023 reproductive rate of 0.13 per nest is worse th...