"The saga of the future of Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery on Chesapeake Bay continues to unfold as the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Menhaden Management Board approved a motion on Tuesday Aug 6 that could lead to further regulations of the fishery.

The management board approved a motion to establish a “workgroup” to consider and evaluate “precautionary options” in the regulation of the state’s menhaden fishery.

This includes considering time and area closures of Virginia’s menhaden reduction fishery “to be protective of piscivorous birds and fish during critical points of their life cycle. . ."

". . .At the ASMFC menhaden meeting, scientists Barnett Rattner and David Ziolkowski of the U. S. Geological Survey presented a comprehensive report on the state of the osprey population in the United States, which shows the ospreys, along with other birds of prey, have made remarkable comebacks since the disastrous effects of the chemical DDT that caused eggshell thinning in birds in the 1960s.

Ziolkowski explained that after measures were taken, including banning DDT, between 1966 and 2022, the eastern population of osprey increased by about 300 percent, and the Atlantic Coast population increased by about 587 percent. In the Chesapeake Bay it has increased by about 1,800 percent since the 1960s.

He continued, “what these numbers bear out is that osprey have made an astounding recovery by all accounts. The numbers are now in excess of historical numbers and in part that's because they've returned to a world that's very different than the world was before they started declining.”

Ziolkowski did note that during the period from 2012 to 2022, “something's going on,” as there has been a leveling off in the growth of the osprey populations in the mid-Atlantic and in other areas of the country. He noted that bird populations “do not grow forever because of limited carrying (food and shelter) capacity. . .”