The really ironic part about this story is the nest is on the property of one of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants in the state!
1st Osprey Chick In 50 Years Seen Near River
Monday, July 23, 2007
By N. CLARK JUDD
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
An osprey chick on the banks of the Hackensack River has hatched new hopes for the river's environment, state officials said Friday.
One week earlier, on July 13, Hackensack Riverkeeper Captain Hugh Carola saw the chick spread its wings and soar away from its nest in the Public Service Electric & Gas Company's Hudson Generating Station, as he steered a boat down the river.
Riverkeeper Capt. Bill Sheehan says the bird is the first known osprey hatched in the Meadowlands in at least 50 years, and the species' return means the environment there has improved dramatically over the intervening years.
"Whenever a top-of-the-food-chain species like that re-emerges in an area, that means that the area is meeting the needs of the animal," Sheehan explained. "For many, many years, the river was still badly polluted, and the food chain was so negatively impacted, that these birds would only stop in once in a while and they'd keep moving. But now they're actually nesting here and raising their young." There are approximately 350 osprey pairs nesting in New Jersey, according to a statement by Riverkeeper.
Chris Gale, director of communications for New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, said that fish are coming back because, while the Hackensack is still polluted, there is more oxygen in the river.
"That means that some of the fish that could not come into the river literally because they couldn't breathe are now coming up the river," he explained.
A 2003 study of the Hackensack conducted by the state Meadowlands Commission and the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute found that the river's fish population had changed dramatically since 1987. Back then, it was dominated by the mummichog, a small fish that requires relatively little oxygen and can tolerate high levels of pollutants.
The 2003 study found that mummichogs accounted for approximately 40 percent of the river's total fish population compared with more than 80 percent in 1987. The study also found that they had been replaced with larger species like white perch and striped bass, which osprey eat - although it isn't safe for people to eat white perch from the Hackensack or anywhere else in the Newark Bay, and it isn't safe to eat more than four striped bass from the area per year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Health and Senior Services. Gale said that tracking the fish population is a good way to track water quality.
The Meadowlands Commission is currently studying whether or not ospreys and other raptors can safely eat Newark Bay fish.
