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Environmentalists/ Fishermen and Hunters

post #1 of 12
8/27/10 at 3:50pm
Thread Starter 
There is a push by the environmentalists for the EPA to ban lead bullets and lead sinkers for fishing. America is going to have some aggravated men folk if they do this.

Read More:

http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/epa-...an-led-bullets
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post #2 of 12
8/27/10 at 3:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by blueyedgirl5946 View Post
There is a push by the environmentalists for the EPA to ban lead bullets and lead sinkers for fishing. America is going to have some aggravated men folk if they do this.

Read More:

http://weeklystandard.com/blogs/epa-...an-led-bullets
I'm not sure I understand their reasoning. Lead bullets are actually alloyed with metals like tin to harden them, so their release of lead into the environment would be a ridiculously slow process. And even though losses occur, most fishing weights are retrieved.

Lead shotgun shot was banned in waterfowl hunting years ago, but that was because water feeding birds would directly ingest fallen shot from the bottom while pecking around for food. I really don't see many bird swallowing a 1/8 fishing sinker.
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post #3 of 12
8/27/10 at 5:05pm
Usually if you snag your hook the line breaks down by the hook. I rarely lose sinkers and floats, but I do have a mix of lead and non-lead sinkers in my tackle box.
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post #4 of 12
8/27/10 at 7:03pm
The bullets I don't understand. Maybe there are many areas of hunting where people miss and the bulles are there to degrade in the environment. The rate at which is happens, I have no idea.

But in fishing, many people do loose their lead sinkers, and lead poisoning in lakes all over the country is a serious problem. It's been a major problem in NY. In New England, a study at Tufts found that 52% of dead loons succumbed to lead poisoning from ingestion of the lead sinkers. MNs loon population has grown from 10,000 to 12,000 in the 80s to to today, but still, over 10% of the loons in MN are dying of lead sinker ingestion. In the Pokjras region of the has the heaviest incidence of lead poisoning in a heavily fished 5-lake region in NH (44%!) - but these are very heavily fished lakes with easy access to Boston.

In WI (Turtle-Flabeau Floweage they found 1.2 sinkers/acre. This compares to 202.4 sinkers/acre in Umbagog Lake on NH-ME border and 404.7 sinkers/acre on the Missiquoi Refuge in VT.

So while it may not be a country-wide problem, it certainly is in certain areas.

Of course, the bigger problem for the loon population is the jet ski
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post #5 of 12
8/27/10 at 7:43pm
I think some states may have limits to the type/size of lead sinkers that may be used. I've been using the lead free splitshot sinkers more and more because I have a tendency to bite down on them when attaching them to the line. They really aren't that much more expensive than the lead sinkers.
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post #6 of 12
8/30/10 at 1:42pm
Thread Starter 
I saw on today's Drudge Report that the EPA has said this is out of their jurisdiction. So they won't be passing anything about this.
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post #7 of 12
8/30/10 at 2:10pm
It may even be out of the jurisdiction of U.S. Fish & Wildlife unless Federally owned land is involved. I'm thinking it may be a matter that is left up to the states. To be honest a move to lead free sinkers wouldn't bother me at all.
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post #8 of 12
8/30/10 at 10:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post
The bullets I don't understand. Maybe there are many areas of hunting where people miss and the bulles are there to degrade in the environment. The rate at which is happens, I have no idea.

But in fishing, many people do loose their lead sinkers, and lead poisoning in lakes all over the country is a serious problem. It's been a major problem in NY. In New England, a study at Tufts found that 52% of dead loons succumbed to lead poisoning from ingestion of the lead sinkers. MNs loon population has grown from 10,000 to 12,000 in the 80s to to today, but still, over 10% of the loons in MN are dying of lead sinker ingestion. In the Pokjras region of the has the heaviest incidence of lead poisoning in a heavily fished 5-lake region in NH (44%!) - but these are very heavily fished lakes with easy access to Boston.

In WI (Turtle-Flabeau Floweage they found 1.2 sinkers/acre. This compares to 202.4 sinkers/acre in Umbagog Lake on NH-ME border and 404.7 sinkers/acre on the Missiquoi Refuge in VT.

So while it may not be a country-wide problem, it certainly is in certain areas.

Of course, the bigger problem for the loon population is the jet ski
That's really interesting Laurie, and so sad!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Essayons89 View Post
To be honest a move to lead free sinkers wouldn't bother me at all.
That's what I was wondering...it's not like they're banning fishing, just the use of lead. It seems to me that there are plenty of materials they could use for sinkers. Now bullets I don't know...there is certainly more to the technology for bullets vs. sinkers.
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post #9 of 12
8/31/10 at 5:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by LDG View Post
But in fishing, many people do loose their lead sinkers, and lead poisoning in lakes all over the country is a serious problem. It's been a major problem in NY. In New England, a study at Tufts found that 52% of dead loons succumbed to lead poisoning from ingestion of the lead sinkers........................
The same here in Ontario. A Canadian study estimated an average of 125 to 187 million lead sinkers are deposited in Canadian waters annually, with about half in Ontario.

Substitutes for lead fishing-weights are available. I don't quite understand anyone having a problem of improving the environment by switching to a very viable alternative. It's only going to improve the hunting/fishing not deter it.
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post #10 of 12
8/31/10 at 6:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russian Blue
Substitutes for lead fishing-weights are available. I don't quite understand anyone having a problem of improving the environment by switching to a very viable alternative. It's only going to improve the hunting/fishing not deter it.
That's why I don't mind using the lead free weights.
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post #11 of 12
9/1/10 at 10:56am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russian Blue View Post

Substitutes for lead fishing-weights are available. I don't quite understand anyone having a problem of improving the environment by switching to a very viable alternative. It's only going to improve the hunting/fishing not deter it.
Exactly!
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post #12 of 12
9/2/10 at 9:38pm
I don't see the problem with switching to lead-free bullets and sinkers. Cost, maybe, but no other drawbacks. I don't know why anyone wants to eat an animal shot with lead anyway . I know plenty of people who have bitten down on/swallowed birdshot when eating duck or pheasant, or buckshot when eating venison. Seems dangerous to be ingesting lead like that.
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