Existing comment:
Why make a decoy that sinks? Sinkboxes need weights to keep them low in the water and these weights doubled as duck decoys. The sinkbox was a floating blind sunk down almost flush with the surface of the water and disguised with decoys. Sinkbox gunning was especially popular on the Susquehanna Flats, the marshy stretch of shallow water at the upper end of the Chesapeake where millions of canvasback ducks migrated each season.
Since these decoys sat on the sinkbox, they did not need thick bodies for buoyancy. Sinkboxes contributed to a decline in the canvasback duck population. "The sinkbox is in reality a floating blind... It is a wholesale murdering sort of thing and has little 'sport' about it." -- Maryland Conservationist
The laws that protect them...
1832 -- Maryland's first law to protect migratory birds (prohibiting punt and battery guns in parts of Harford County)
1886 -- First law against night hunting in Maryland (Washington County)
1896 -- Establishment of the first game wardens in Maryland.
1910 -- Punt gun, swivel gun and battery gun become illegal throughout the state of Maryland.
1917-1918 -- The Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act establishes laws throughout the country: birds protected by season, unlawful shooting from a boat under sail or power, bag limits, and restrictions on shipments to market.
1935 -- State of Maryland establishes a three-shell limit in automatic and repeating firearms when waterfowl hunting.
1939 -- Illegal to "spotlight" game in Maryland for purposes of gunning.
1943 -- The sinkbox becomes unlawful in Maryland.
1955 -- In Maryland, illegal to shoot waterfowl under influence of alcohol or drugs. |