The Rise and Fall of the Canvasback Duck

Editor's Note: The opinions and observations expressed in "From the Field" are those of Mike Roberts and are published in their original form.

When European colonists arrived in the New World countless rafts of canvasback ducks overwintered on the Chesapeake Bay where expansive, underwater beds of eelgrass (AKA wild celery), served as nurseries for an abundance of juvenile blue crabs, marine snails, grass shrimp, and numerous species of fish. Canvasbacks relied on the unique ecosystem’s bountiful supply of eelgrass tubers and invertebrates to survive the cold weather months. An estimated half-million of the big diving ducks spent winters on the bay during the mid-1800s.

In order to meet the ever-increasing demand for wild game from high-end restaurants up and down the East Coast the growing army of market hunters upgraded their hunting gear and tactics. Utilizing floating sink boxes, long strings of hand-carved decoys, and huge scatterguns capable of firing a pound of lead pellets, commercial hunters sometimes killed as many as 15,000 canvasbacks in a single day.

Because of this relentless slaughter, plus extensive droughts in the Prairie Pothole regions, and the drainage of millions of acres of wetlands, canvasback populations had drastically declined by the end of the 1800s. Then, thanks to a handful of wildlife conservation pioneers and key political figures, plus passage of several federal laws focused on protecting migrating waterfowl, canvasbacks began a slow recovery. By the 1950s an estimated 250,000 of them were overwintering on the Chesapeake Bay.

Years later, with increased amounts of fertilizers and sediments washing into rivers and streams that emptied into the bay; warming water temperatures; and excessive algae blooms that blocked the sunlight required by eelgrass; the loss of their primary food source resulted in canvasbacks rerouting to other flyways.

Although an estimated 50,000 canvasbacks currently migrate back to the Chesapeake Bay during winter, long gone are the days when the “king of ducks” reigned supreme.

Have a great day outdoors!

Mike Roberts