PUBLICATION:
The
Leader-Post (Regina)
DATE:
2004.05.12
EDITION:
Final
SECTION: Sports
PAGE:
C5
COLUMN:
Outdoor Life
BYLINE:
Michael Snook
SOURCE:
The Leader-Post
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Research
is flawed, suspect and thin
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For
generations anglers have used lead sinkers and jigs. But the federal government
has plans to put an end to that. Environment Minister David Anderson has
indicated that in the near future, legislation will be introduced to ban the
importing, manufacturing and sale of these traditional products. It does not
include, as some rumours have it, the requirement that anglers would have to
dispose of all the lead tackle they currently own. That's not on.
We've known for years that lead is not good for
us -- if it gets into our bodies it causes a particularly nasty form of heavy
metal poisoning. The major reason given for the ban is not risk to humans, but
to loons. The position of the government is that sinkers and jigs that anglers
lose each year are ingested by loons, and they die of lead poisoning. And, in
fact, a half dozen or so of these wonderful birds have been confirmed as
perishing from lead poisoning across Canada in the recent past. For more
detailed information on this research you can visit this Web site (www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/)
and follow the bouncing ball. It may be under review, since my last attempt to
check it failed, but give it a try.
The
problems with the information used as a basis for banning lead sinkers and jigs
are significant. First, the numbers are very, very small. Second, the
government's own research indicates that the loon population has been stable or
increasing throughout most of Canada for a number of years. In addition,
other research indicates that the most critical issue for loon survival (or that
of most wild species for that matter) is habitat loss or disturbance by human
activity. No new legislation is planned to deal with that problem.
Federal
officials state that anglers dump 500 metric tons of lead per year into our
waterways in the form of lost lures. The basis for this statement is
apparently the quantity of jigs and sinkers that we anglers purchase every year,
and assumes that all of those purchases are to replace lost tackle. Hmmmm.
Don't know about you, but I lost maybe eight or 10 jigs last year to snags and
broken line. I bought way more than that, not to replace lost tackle, but to add
new colours and styles and sizes of jigs to my tackle box. I have hundreds of
jigs in my growing collection, some of which I have fished with for more than a
decade, and never lost.
The
assumption that any tackle we do lose will inevitably end up in the craw of a
loon, or other waterfowl, is also suspect.
I can't imagine a loon ingesting a quarter ounce jig with a three-centimetre
hook attached, and if it did, the hook would do it in long before lead poisoning
ever became an issue. How much more unlikely is it that any bird would ingest a
lead downrigger ball the size of a lemon? A small split shot perhaps.
The
research is flawed, suspect, and thin. In addition, the federal environment
minister had promised the angling community that consultations would be held
about any legislation regarding the banning of lead fishing tackle. Instead, it
appears that the decision to go ahead with the legislation has been made, and
any consultations will involve only its manner of application.
In
spite of all this, I'm not a big fan of lead. It is nasty stuff, in forms not
usually associated with angling. Lead dust can be inhaled or ingested, so can
lead vapour caused by melting the metal at high temperatures. Either can kill
you. Neither is associated with the manufacturing or use of lead fishing tackle.
But still, a less harmful alternative would be worth looking at, and there are
some alternatives out there.
The
most likely is bismuth, a material that is used in the common patent medicine
for upset tummies -- Pepto Bismol. It's pretty harmless stuff, and about 70 per
cent of the weight of lead. Problem is, no one is making it available in
commercial quantities sufficient to replace the widespread demand for lead
sinkers -- at least not yet.
This
is a case of legislators and bureaucrats rushing to make a change that is
difficult to justify, for reasons not clear, without a plan for any orderly
transition from the present circumstances to a new way of doing things. And all
of this without real consultation with those who know most about the problem --
anglers, their organizations, and the companies that make the fishing tackle we
use.
It's
a sobering indication of how little influence those of us who love the outdoors
have on those who claim to manage it on our behalf.
If
you want to change that, let your member of parliament know how you feel.
Outdoor
Life appears Wednesdays; Michael Snook can be reached at sagecommunications@sasktel.net