Waterfowl Hunting
Waterfowl hunting, especially for ducks and geese, has been a long-standing cultural element of life in the Delmarva region. While there were laws that regulated when people could hunt, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there were no laws that limited the number of ducks that a hunter could shoot in one day. The decrease in population led to the creation of the first law that limited a hunt, which capped it at 25 birds in one day. Other conservation laws and hunting limitations have been put in place to protect the waterfowl population on the Eastern Shore
The map below denotes duck blinds (marked with an “x”) along the shoreline of Hoopers Island in Dorchester County, Maryland. The map belonged to the 48th Governor of Maryland, Emerson C. Harrington (1864-1945), who served in office from January 12, 1916, to January 14, 1920.
