The common loon is a bird that only started repopulating New England in the late 20th century after being killed off for 300 years. One problem quickly emerged: loons eat pebbles to digest food in their gizzard. Unfortunately, years of fishing and hunting had put lead sinkers and bullets all over the waterfronts of New England, so the birds were eating those and dying shortly thereafter of lead poisoning. A loon that eats a one-ounce lead sinker will die in about two to four weeks. New Hampshire has taken significant action on this, first orchestrating a lead tackle buyback program — since 2018, people have dropped off 80,000 pieces of lead tackle, some 172 pounds of lead in 2024 alone. In the state, lead-related loon deaths have dropped 34 percent since then.
Krista Langlois, bioGraphic
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