Osprey populations have recovered dramatically following DDT bans, and current welfare challenges include power line collisions, fishing line entanglement, and nest disturbance.
The osprey recovery story is one of conservation's great successes, demonstrating that major threats can be reversed with targeted regulatory action. Current welfare challenges are more diffuse but still significant — fishing line entanglement causes painful injury and slow death for affected birds, power line electrocution creates localized mortality hot spots, and nest disturbance during the breeding season can cause nest abandonment and chick mortality. Entanglement from discarded fishing monofilament and tackle represents a preventable welfare harm that individual anglers can directly address. Power line safety modifications protect osprey at specific sites. Nest camera monitoring enables non-invasive assessment of breeding success and individual bird welfare without disturbance.