Researchers monitoring osprey nests around Great Bay and the Mullica River found many chicks were starving, with 85% not surviving as experts focus on the continuing scarcity of a critical food source.<\/p>\n
Stockton University biology instructor Melanie Schroer and her students surveyed and monitored more than two dozen osprey nests in the area.<\/p>\n
“We would approach a nest, and we would see chicks, just skin and bones,” Schroer said.<\/p>\n
The troubling signs hit particularly close to home at Stockton University, where the osprey is the school’s mascot.<\/p>\n
Stockton junior Stephen Gamba spotted a young osprey on campus last week and knew something was wrong.<\/p>\n
“He just stood there. He didn\u2019t fly away. He didn\u2019t get scared,” Gamba said.<\/p>\n
The osprey was captured but died while being transported to a bird rehabilitation facility.<\/p>\n
“It was very emaciated. So it was obviously having a hard time finding food,” John Rokita of the Stockton University Vivarium said.<\/p>\n
Schroer believes the bird was experiencing the same food stress researchers had been seeing elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“I think that the chick that we found here at Stockton unfortunately was experiencing the same types of food stress that we’ve seen out in the field all summer,” Schroer said.<\/p>\n
The problem extends beyond the nests monitored by Stockton researchers.<\/p>\n
Ben Wurst with the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey has documented similar conditions around Barnegat Bay, part of a troubling pattern stretching along the Jersey Shore and much of the East Coast.<\/p>\n
“Those results are looking to be even worse than last year, which was the worst year for Osprey’s in recent history,” Wurst said.<\/p>\n
Experts are focused on the continuing scarcity of Atlantic menhaden, a type of fish also known as bunker. Menhaden are used for bait and nutritional supplements and are a critical food source for ospreys and other wildlife.<\/p>\n
“There\u2019s no current explanation as to why this is happening,” Wurst said.<\/p>\n
The concerns come as fisheries managers consider reducing the cap on menhaden caught commercially in Chesapeake Bay by up to 50% and spreading the harvest more evenly throughout the year. A public comment period is open until Oct. 9.<\/p>\n
“We want to reduce the number that are allowed to be caught as much as possible to leave more in the water, especially during critical breeding times,” Schroer said.<\/p>\n
The two troubling nesting seasons came just after ospreys were removed from New Jersey’s endangered species list.<\/p>\n
“It is definitely concerning to see just how much that is impacting them, especially this year,” Gamba said.<\/p>\n
“This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Researchers monitoring osprey nests around Great Bay and the Mullica River found many chicks were starving, with 85%…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[44595,79,201],"class_list":["post-849493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-jersey-shore","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}