I think some people use them to hide "short" fish... LOL my brother-in-law comes up with some creative hiding spots.
It wasn't meant to be open and shut over and over. This might be the problem. (not implying YOU did this, but the previous owner maybe)
Funny, he hid a snapper in his bilge area, and one of them managed to get up out of sight and he forgot about it. He had stink and maggots coming out of every nook and cranny after that... too funny. Just the other day he looked in the bilge and saw a backbone in there from that incident, and that was two years ago.
