A rubber duck museum based in Point Roberts, U.S.A., is set to move to B.C.’s Tsawwassen Mills mall next month as owners say business has become unsustainable due to increasing tariffs and decreasing tourism.

The new location will only be about a 15-minute drive away from the current space — not even six kilometres as the crow flies — but an international border will separate the two.

Point Roberts, an American exclave of just over 1,000 people, is connected by land to Canada but is separated from the rest of the U.S. by water.

When the Rubber Duck Museum opened about 1½ years ago in the Point Roberts gift shop owned by Americans Neil and Krystal King, the couple said the shop had lines going out the door.

“Border guards were telling us that, you know, it seemed like every other person was coming in saying they were here for the Rubber Duck Museum,” Krystal told CBC’s The Early Edition.

The museum features about 30 “historically or culturally significant” rubber ducks, according to Krystal.

Their earliest duck, a German-manufactured pull-toy on wheels, dates back to 1911.

“We have them from all over the world, and it’s really been a lot of fun,” she said.

The displays delve into the history of various rubber ducks, from the 1950s “Mr. Squawker” that squawks when squeezed, to a Soviet-era vinyl duck, to a print of the 1949 “Peter Ganine rubber duck patent,” which the museum says is considered the first patent for the modern rubber duck.

The museum has up to 3,000 ducks for sale, and Neil said as business grew, about 70 per cent of the gift shop’s sales became rubber duck museum merchandise.

But sales plummeted when political tensions ramped up last year after the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, along with his rumblings of annexing Canada as the “51st state.”

In October this year, the volume of southbound trips at several major B.C.-Wash. crossings had decreased by 26 per cent year over year, according to data compiled by the Whatcom Council of Governments in Washington.

The number of Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. was down by more than 30 per cent year over year in September, according to Statistics Canada.

Krystal said museum regulars have called in apologizing for not visiting.

“They were saying, ‘We love you guys, and we’re so sorry this is going to affect you personally, but we can’t come down right now. We’ll see you in four years.’”

Neil said the drop in border crossings has directly translated to a drop in sales. He said the shop has seen a 60 per cent decrease in sales and revenue.

And tariffs on Chinese goods have made the museum’s business model unsustainable.

“Every month it was coming back with, like, ‘Here’s a 30 per cent tariff charge, here’s a 70 per cent tariff charge,” Neil said.

Krystal said it was a tough choice to move the museum to Canada, as she and her husband have planted community roots in Point Roberts.

But the Kings are excited to be opening in Tsawwassen Mills.

“We love Canada, we love the culture, we love the people. And so once we realized it was either, you know, that or shutting down, it was a very easy decision.”

The couple said they won’t be working at the new location until they sort out their visas.

But Neil added the new museum in Canada will show off even more duck artifacts.

“We’re just going to be diving more into rubber ducks … just a visual assault of the senses, just beautiful rubber ducks everywhere.”