Lead sinkers -- citations, please

[pharper]

Jeeze...
I think the point here is...
LEAD IS BAD.

Ed has it right here:

Please don't lead people astray by telling them that tossing a known poison into our rivers and streams does not have dire consequences. It does!

Disagreeing here does all anglers a disservice by arguing that lead does not have a negative impact. IT DOES.

It may not be as bad as other things (habitat destruction, epidemics or whatever), but Every Angler should be making a consious effort to minimize there use of lead.
I'll fully admit there are worse problems out there (including the pharmecueticals from water treatment plants, and runoff from roads), but doesn't every little bit help? For a couple bucks difference, I can't justify using a product that is known to have harmfull effects (even if only a few swan deaths are scientifically proven a year in one study, take the stats and stretch it over the continent where people fish...). I'm not really pleased about kiling anything incidentally and I will do what I can to prevent it. I don't take blind shots while hunting, why would I pursue an activity that has a chance of killing others, when I know I can minimize that?
Kinda parallels the attitude in this good article http://www.madduck.org/article/paradox
Stop holding on to lead... it's just a bad habit.

Every conscious effort to do right by the environment is a positive step forward... fighting to justify the use of lead is certainly not helping any cause for how important anglers are, inregards to conservation of freshwater resources... I'd argue the opposite actually... it makes all anglers look like a bunch of backwards idiots only concerned with our own short term enjoyment.

[TB Wannabe]

Good for you pharper! That is exactly the attitude we should all have.

[rookie]

I'm really going to go out on a limb here and probably even going to cut the branch off behind me "BUT" if all of these gazillion lbs of lead that have been removed from the earth were returned to the earth, Who do you think would start yelling the loudest?

[pharper]

I'm really going to go out on a limb here and probably even going to cut the branch off behind me "BUT" if all of these gazillion lbs of lead that have been removed from the earth were returned to the earth, Who do you think would start yelling the loudest?

Lead put back on the earth like this?
The quantity of lead shot, nylon fishing line and other litter discarded at a coarse fishing lake. (lead not lost while fishing, but while trying to put it on the line?)

Or of course if you put it in water it starts to "leach"
Lead emissions from lost fishing sinkers

There is a good summary in this Washington State document: http://198.238.33.67/fish/papers/lea.../fpt_06-13.pdf

Buried in a dry (or at least non acidic) pit... no problem

[rookie]

Glad to see you added the monofiliment pharper. I don't know the statistics but my bet is more birds have died from mono than lead.

The older I get the more I have realized how little I believe what I read. "SHOW ME". Don't tell me and use some articles that "say this" and "say that".

Why don't we change the discussion to all getting together and fishing.

[pharper]

Ahh, but like Newton said..." If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
The articles are written by bigger eco-toxicology experts then I ever want to meet. The only way to ladvance in something like this is by questioning the work and building on it or rebutting it.


I don't doubt there are more deaths from mono... I've seen quite a few and rescued a few birds and animals myself.
But that is another issue, and possibly a more revelent one to flyanglers A Cause of Mortality for Aerial Insectivores


I'm all for fishing... It should be above freezing here this weekend!!!

Harps

[rookie]

Got me there Harps,

Here's hoping the weather works out for you. We had temps in the 50's today but supposed to snow tonight. Go figure.