CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Despite a five-year-old ban on using lead tackle for freshwater fishing, state Fish and Game Department officials say the number of loons dying from ingesting sinkers and jigs hasn’t dropped enough.

Now officials are hoping that a new law banning the sale of lead sinkers smaller than 1 ounce and jigs smaller than 1 inch long will make more of a difference. The law takes effect Sunday.

When the Legislature passed the ban on using lead tackle in 2000, 15 loons were found dead in New Hampshire. Six had died of lead poisoning. In 2004, five of the 16 birds found dead were killed by lead.

John Kanter of the Fish and Game Department’s endangered species program said that while some of the birds probably picked up old sinkers from the bottoms of lakes, others got it off the lines of anglers still using lead.

“We really hope that this works, because here’s an issue where there’s an alternative,” he said.

The new law allows store owners to be fined up to $1,000 for selling the banned tackle. The 2000 law fines anglers using lead $250.

A report by the Loon Preservation Committee says lead poisoning is responsible for 58 percent of known loon deaths since the group began monitoring the state’s population in 1975.

The state’s loon population has more than doubled since monitoring of the species began about 30 years ago. But since 2000, the population has been in decline and lead poisoning continued to be the leading cause of death.