CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Eight years ago, New Hampshire banned lead fishing sinkers, partly to protect loons. But loons still are dying of lead poisoning.

The Loon Preservation Committee suspects the lead ban doesn’t go far enough. It prohibits the use of lead sinkers and lead jigs smaller than 1 inch. Two of the four dead loons found recently ate larger lead jigs, which are legal.

When the ban took effect in 2000, biologists thought it was unlikely that loons would eat anything larger than an inch. Now, the committee says loons are eating the larger jigs, and eating fish that have the jigs in them. Jigs are fishing lures.

Two of the dead loons had swallowed lead sinkers, suggesting some anglers still are using them, even though they are illegal.

The lead ends up in the loons’ gizzards, where pebbles grind up the food that they eat. The pebbles grind up the lead sinkers and jigs too, and the loons get sick and die within a few weeks.

These most recent deaths are alarming because of their number. In the past five years, an average of 4.6 loons have died from lead poisoning each year. From 1995 to 1999, before the ban on lead tackle, 7.4 loons died each year.

To have four die in a span of two weeks is cause for concern, said John Cooley, a senior biologist with the Loon Preservation Committee.

“It’s a little bit of a surprise to have that many come in that quickly,” Cooley told the Concord Monitor.

After historic lows in the 1960s and 1970s, New Hampshire’s loon population has held steady for the past 10 years, Cooley said. But the loss of four or five loons is enough to send it downward, he said.

The committee would like to see fishermen leave their lead tackle at home – even if some of it is still legal.

But David Duffy, vice president of the New Hampshire Bass Federation, said discontinuing the use of lead jigs may be tougher for anglers than abandoning lead sinkers because the jigs are more expensive.