PUBLICATION:
The
DATE:
2005.02.03
EDITION:
Final
SECTION:
Sports
PAGE:
S19
BYLINE:
JOHN KERR, OUTDOORS WRITER
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NO SMOKING GUN WITH SINKER ISSUE
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GET
READY for another round of the lead-tackle debate with the Canadian Wildlife
Service, part of Environment Canada.
The
CWS is again proposing to ban the importation, manufacture and sale of (but not
the use of existing) lead fishing sinkers and jigs less than two centimetres
(.788 inch) in length and weighing less than 50 grams (1.765 ounces).
The
ban is based on concern over an annual average of six reported wildlife deaths,
mainly common loons, across
The
CWS claims this translates into "20% to 30% of adult loon mortality."
BAN STALLED
Yet,
far more loons died recently in
The
CWS tried to push a ban through last year, but stalled when Minister of the
Environment David Anderson was replaced in that post by Stephane Dion, MP for
St. Laurent-Carterville, after the past election.
The
new proposal, however, is broad-sweeping. It also would apply to spinners,
lures, spoons, and other tackle that "attaches to a fishing line" and
"contains more than 1% lead content."
This
means all those crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and other lures you use that contain
even miniscule amounts of lead in any metallic combination also might be the
last of their kind.
Phil
Morlock, chair of the Canadian Sportfishing Industry Association (CSIA)
Legislative Committee, says this could even eventually apply to fishing reels
and other gear if they contain lead, brass, or white metal.
To
back its proposal, the CWS is again using the two-year-old "Occasional
Paper 108," an internal report still not published and peer reviewed
scientifically outside of Environment Canada.
After
following this issue for more than a decade, I am convinced that there is no
smoking gun with the sinker issue. Loon deaths in
Even
the CWS pegs the Canadian common loon population at nearly 600,000 birds and
stable or increasing, and as making a comeback in many areas of the
In
my view, the real issue isn't about loons and wildlife, although the World
Wildlife Fund has been behind the push for a lead-tackle ban, but a worldwide
look at the unnecessary use of lead.
Even
the tackle industry agrees lead is toxic and its use should be limited where
deemed necessary. That was the case when leaded gasoline, paints, and other
products were spread widely in the environment at toxic levels. But, with
fishing tackle, that is undetermined in
In
a position paper, the CSIA recommends that government invite expert
toxicologists from the medical profession and independent wildlife scientists to
participate in discussion on this issue prior to forming a final policy -- a
reasonable request.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
The
public, though, can comment on current proposals by March 15 at Lead Free
Fishing Consultations, 3rd Floor,
Whether
this is just mock "consultation" remains to be seen. Like
Unless
Dion wants to be called the minister of junk science, however, he needs to fully
consult with outside sources and not just take the CWS, or for that matter, the
CSIA spin on the issue. He should openly address the use of lead on a much wider
scale than just the tackle industry and not use hocus-pocus data to justify a
lead-lure-and-sinker ban first, which would have a limited environmental impact
and costs anglers untold millions of dollars.
ENVIRONMENT
Fishing
Lead Free: A Regulatory Proposal Comments accepted until March 18, 2005, on the
regulatory proposal to prohibit lead sinkers and jigs
http://www.cws-scf.ec.gc.ca/fishing/paper_e.cfm