Is lead dead?

By Gord Ellis

As a kid, the spring sinker pour was a family ritual that meant steelhead season was just around the corner. In preparation for the big day, Dad and I would track down as many chunks of lead from local scrapyards as we could. Then calls went out to a handful of fishing friends that a pour night was in the works. The lead was melted and put into moulds to create split shot, egg sinkers, and other basics of angling. After hours of work, everyone had enough lead weights for the season.

Trout anglers, of course, aren't the only ones who use lead. Open just about any tacklebox in Ontario and you'll find lead fishing products. Jig heads, sinkers, spinnerbait bodies, and downrigger cannonballs are primarily made of lead. Its size-to-weight ratio and softness make it perfect for split shot and small jig heads, in particular.

Yet, during the past decade, lead's toxicity has led to steady calls from scientists, environmental groups, and animal-rights activists to ban its use in fishing products. They have already been successful at having lead shot banned for waterfowling. Now, politicians on both sides of the border have heard the noise about lead for fishing products.

This past spring, a private member's motion calling for its ban across Canada was debated in the House of Commons. Here in Ontario, a private member's bill to ban lead tackle failed and there has been quiet lobbying by a few people within the Ministry of Natural Resources to ban it. The potential for a lead fishing-gear ban is real, and the industry is anticipating it.

"Yes, we have thought about what a switch (to non-toxic materials) would mean to us and are keeping tabs on it," said John Crane, with Minnesota's Northland Tackle. "The fact is that the majority of our customers have not asked for non-lead products and we feel the product and the cost (of lead) is right." Crane says Northland, which is one of North America's leading lead jig producers, has had samples of non-toxic jigs made, but they're bulkier and more expensive. Crane says, however, Northland has been following closely the ammunition companies research into alternatives to lead. "They are miles ahead of the fishing industry when it come to non-toxic."

Kim Rhodes is president of Peterborough-based Lucky Strike lures, one of the few fishing companies to promote non-toxic alternatives to lead in Canada. "We got into non-toxic when Parks Canada banned the use of lead in parks," he said. "There was almost no one in Canada providing non-toxic product, so we did." Rhodes says the non-toxic jigs, spoons, and sinkers he sells are not fast movers, but he expects to see growth. "Anglers are price conscious," he said. "I would say that non-toxic products won't move until lead is dead."

Few will dispute that lead can affect wildlife. The evidence that lead shot from shotgun shells was killing waterfowl in heavily hunted areas was compelling, and the United States and then Canada banned its use for hunting migratory birds. Split shot, jigs, and other fishing tackle are usually much larger than lead shot used for hunting, but the potential is there for similar concerns.

While getting an accurate count of how many birds might die due to lead fishing products is difficult, several researchers have tried. In 1995, Tony Scheuhammer and S. L. Norris produced a document for the Canadian Wildlife Service (CWS)."A review of the environmental impacts of lead shot shell ammunition and lead fishing weights in Canada." It contained little hard data that lead fishing gear had anywhere near the impact on the environment that lead in shotshells was having.

There have, however, been a variety of studies done on the specific effect of lead fishing gear on waterbirds, specifically loons. A 15-year study analyzing 222 dead loons from 18 U.S. states, including Minnesota, concluded 10 per cent had died of lead poisoning. Eleven loons actually had lead fishing sinkers in their stomachs. In another study by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, lead poisoning accounted for 17 per cent of the dead loons sent in for autopsy.

Perhaps the most comprehensive work on the effects of lead sinkers on loons has been done by Mark Pokras, a veterinary scientist at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts. Over the past 12 years, Pokras and his colleagues examined hundreds of dead adult loons and determined more than half died from lead poisoning from ingesting fishing gear. The research indicated one sinker has enough lead to kill a loon. With nearly 700 loons studied, the research suggested about 54 per cent of adult loons are dying from lead poisoning, and in areas of heavy fishing pressure, 84 per cent.

"When we first uncovered this we realized it was going to be a hot topic," said Pokras. "There are still wildlife biologists that won't talk to each other because of the lead-shot issue. Nobody wants to paint anglers as bad guys. We're just trying to be pro-active about this.

"Most environmental problems are complicated, but this one is simple," said Pokras. "If a loon eats lead, it dies. The solution is simple, too. Use another material other than lead. If it's less than 1 ounce or an inch (in size) and it's made of lead, it should be banned."

In the U.S., concern over the effect lead fishing tackle is having on loons led Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to regulate its use. New York, Wisconsin, and Minnesota are also discussing similar actions or have begun educational campaigns about lead tackle. Overseas, Great Britain and Denmark have banned it. In Canada, the federal government banned the use of lead fishing sinkers and jigs weighing less than 1.765 ounces (50 grams) in National Wildlife Areas and Parks in 1997.

On its Web site Fish Lead Free, Environment Canada states that 5.5 million people fish in Canada every year (about one in five Canadians) and "an estimated 500 tonnes of lead in the form of lead sinkers and jigs are lost in Canada annually." If that number is true (it's unattributed), Canadian anglers are leaving a staggering amount of lead in the water.

Not everyone, however, is convinced lead poisoning of loons is a problem in Ontario. Greg Farrant, government-relations manager of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH), says the group is against a ban on lead tackle. He sounded surprised with the Tufts study results. "The science we have seen in Canada does not reflect numbers like that in any way, shape, or form," he said. "According to the science that we have so far, a ban is not justified. The info we have seen is that a really tiny number of waterfowl might die from ingesting lead fishing tackle."

Rick Amsbury, the executive director of the Canadian Sport Fishing Industry Association, a lobby group, agrees with OFAH. He's unconvinced that what happens to loons in New Hampshire or Vermont can be assumed to be occurring north of the border. "There is a lot of extrapolation going on," said Amsbury. "The number of loons that die from lead poisoning in Ontario is very low. If you sent out every person in Whitney (near Algonquin P.P.) and told them to try to find a dead loon they'd come up empty. Yet thousands of birds die of botulism every year, including loons (see NEWS). We know what causes that."

Amsbury feels the push to ban lead fishing tackle is part of an agenda by people who dislike angling and hunting and want to nibble away at their edges. But he acknowledges the political winds from the federal government are blowing towards further regulation of lead, split shot, in particular.

"We aren't trying to be difficult about the lead issue," he said. "Anglers, as much as anybody, care about the environment and about loons. We are just saying show us some credible science that this is a problem here."

As an angler who has used and poured lead for four decades, I'm ambivalent about a ban on its use. Lead products have been effective for angling and have not been adequately replaced by any non-toxic products I've seen or used. Any overall ban on its use will have a huge effect on the fishing industry, as well as anglers. It will certainly cost everyone money.

As for the health of loons here in Ontario, a purely unscientific reaction is there seems to be lots of them around. Unless there's information out there I've not seen, the number of loons being found dead from lead poisoning in Ontario is negligible. In my 40 years spent on the water or in the bush, I've only ever seen one dead loon. It was tangled in a gill-net. Research being done stateside must be considered, but in context. Ontario is not Massachusetts or Vermont.

Whether anglers like it or not, the lead debate will heat up. It will be a divisive and likely ugly affair. Early in 2003, the federal government plans to release a review of all the studies that have been done on lead fishing tackle and its effects on wildlife. I'm told by CWS officials that a public "discussion" will follow. Anglers and the tackle industry need to study the research carefully, make an informed opinion, and be prepared to express - and defend - their positions. If a good case can't be made for keeping lead fishing tackle, it will soon be gone.