Anglers will soon have to “get the lead out”

Ken Johnston
Editor

The government of Canada will soon be telling anglers to get the lead out of fishing.
Last week Federal Minister of the Environment David Anderson announced that his ministry will be bringing forth regulations, possibly as soon as a year from now, that will prohibit the importing, manufacturing and sale of sinkers containing lead in Canada.
This is being done to help prevent the death of wildlife who have been ingesting lost or discarded lead fishing tackle; specifically jigs and sinkers.
Steve Wendt, Chief of Migratory Birds Conservation with Environment Canada, said that while no nationwide regulations have been brought forward as of yet, the new laws will be aimed at the manufacturers and retailers. Anglers will not have to worry about having lead in their tackle boxes. However, he did say that they are hopeful that anglers will realize the danger lead poses to wild life, such as loons, eagles and snapping turtles and make the switch to alternatives.
There are several tackle manufacturers already making jigs and sinkers out of other materials such as tin, bismuth, clay, steel, glass, tungsten beads and putty.
While Environment Canada cites studies showing a high mortality rate amongst loons from lead consumption, Wendt said, it really is difficult to determine how big an impact lead truly has on wildlife populations. “What we do know is the number of dead birds autopsied did have a high number of deaths attributable to lead poisoning.”
One estimate by the Canadian Wildlife Service puts the amount of lead being lost or discarded into Canadian lakes and rivers at 500 metric tonnes. That is equivalent to dropping about 500 cars into the water each year. They feel that is about 18% of the total direct lead releases into the environment.
Some anglers may be concerned about the higher cost of alternatives, but Wendt said that right now the manufacturers have not made a big move to being lead free and hence supply is tight for alternatives. Once lead is banned and they all make the move, it is expected that prices will come down to nearly the same as lead.
For now the government will begin crafting regulations that it will hold public consultations on in about six months. Wendt noted that a ban on all fishing tackle containing lead 50 grams or smaller in size has been in place at National Parks for a few years now. “We will likely look at size when drafting these regulations...larger items like cannon ball sinkers on downriggers will likely not be affected as they are too large for them (birds/turtles) to swallow.”
That is how the birds are getting affected. They are swallowing smaller jigs or sinkers to aid them in digestion (thinking they are small pebbles). Ingestion of just one lead sinker or jig, representing several grams of lead, is enough to expose a loon or other bird to a lethal dose of the substance.
Wendt said that Env. Canada hopes to have the national law in place in about a year and maybe even sooner.
“I am really hopeful that the public does not think we are against fishing. After all it is an activity that gets people out into the great outdoors. This is just something we can all do to prevent unnecessary deaths of animals,” concluded Wendt.