EPA Asked to Ban Lead Shot and Sinkers

[JasonB]

Got this in an email the other day. I am sure some folks on this site are aware of this but I haven't seen any posts about it.

August 5, 2010
EPA Asked to Ban Lead Shot and Sinkers
A group of environmentalist, fresh off success of banning some lead shot in California are now petitioning the EPA to ban lead shot and bullets and sinkers from use in the US and US waters. The petition was filed today.

http://gon.us1.list-manage.com/track...c&e=50b35bc968

This is a perfect reason for sportsmen to understand that if we are not involved in politics, those who are will ban us.

In the next month, Sportsmen will learn who supports us and who opposes us.

Those who remain silent on this issue provide tacit support to the effort to ban lead shot.

This is just one of the many examples that are showing us that elections matter.

Read it and get mad.
Sincerely,

Steve Burch
Georgia Outdoor News

© 2010 Georgia Outdoor News | 4331 Seven Islands Rd. Madison, GA 30650 | 1-800-438-4663

[TROPHY SPORTFISHING]

To bad they didn't put that much thought and effort into helping stop the gulf oil leak or help clean it up. Another prime example of government wastefull spending.

[gottaflylee]

Groups like W.I.L.D, P.E.W. and P.E.T.A are a scary bunch and have been going after us for a very long time and it will not stop. Why do you think we have "Catch Shares". Groups like thism, know what better is better for us the the data does... Just hold on when the "shares" goes up for bid, groupl like this coould buy up all the shares and keep all of us from fishing. Now we really need CHANGE...

[jackdaniels]

Griffin: Time to get the lead out
received from American Fisheries Society

Posted: Sunday, August 8, 2010 12:21 am | Updated: 9:13 am, Sun Aug 8, 2010. Midland News

By Steve Griffin

Anglers may have gotten a sinking feeling from this week's news, and hunters and other shooters may think the aim of five groups in the news is off the mark.

The groups are led by the American Bird Conservancy and the Center for Biological Diversity; they've petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to ban the use of lead in ammunition and fishing tackle.

That's bullets and shoot to shooters, and sinkers, lead-head jigs -- and who knows, maybe lead-core line and downrigger weights -- to anglers.

"It's long past time to do something about this deadly -- and preventable -- epidemic of lead poisoning in the wild," said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity, in a news release from his group, ABC, the Association of Avian Veterinarians, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Operation Gutpile.

"Over the past several decades," wrote Miller, "we've wisely taken steps to get lead out of our gasoline, paint, water pipes and other sources that are dangerous to people. Now it's time to get the lead out of hunting and fishing sports to save wildlife from needless poisoning."

His group is a classic environmental outfit, with a website welcome page that includes pictures of polar bears and offers of free endangered species condoms -- not for the species, of course, but for the people whose overpopulation threatens them.

The group reports it has "a full-time staff of 20 prominent environmental lawyers and 12 scientists who work exclusively on our campaigns to save species and the places they need to survive."

That, my friends, is (lead-free) firepower.

The American Bird Conservancy, an active protector of birds and habitats, has an enviable four-star, "exceptional' rating as a charity by the independent group Charity Navigator.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility is a watchdog group that backs public employees who speak up for environmental causes. Its website features testimonials from Michigan Sierra Club and Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, among many others.

And the ominous-sounding Operation Gutpile? It's led by a hunter who decries the illness and death of endangered California condors which ingest ammunition lead with the wildlife they scavenge. It promotes non-lead substitutes.

Here's the reasoning, according to this week's press release:

"An estimated 10 million to 20 million birds and other animals die each year from lead poisoning in the United States. This occurs when animals scavenge on carcasses shot and contaminated with lead bullet fragments, or pick up and eat spent lead-shot pellets or lost fishing weights, mistaking them for food or grit. Some animals die a painful death from lead poisoning while others suffer for years from its debilitating effects."

The groups are asking for the ban under provisions of the Toxic Substances Control Act.

That's not necessary, reply representatives of the shooting and fishing industries. At least, it hasn't been proven necessary, they said in protest.

Note the admission at the end of this statement by Steve Sanetti, president of the industry group the National Shooting Sports Foundation: "There is simply no scientific evidence that the use of traditional ammunition is having an adverse impact on wildlife populations that would require restricting or banning (it) ... beyond current limitations, such as the scientifically based restriction on waterfowl hunting."

Beginning in the 1970s, waterfowl hunters were ordered to switch from lead shot to non-toxic materials. Ducks and other birds do ingest spent pellets while feeding, get sick, and pass on the lead to bio-accumulators such as eagles.

Sanetti cited U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that show a 724 percent increase in bald eagle numbers over the 25 years from 1981 to 2006, while people shot, hunted and fished with lead. Numbers of other raptors increased, too.

But is that because lead was removed from waterfowlers' shell boxes, or despite the fact that pheasant hunters and others could still use it?

Sanetti added that higher-cost non-lead ammo would drive some out of shooting and hunting, lower excise tax revenues, and thus hamper the wildlife management efforts that have helped the birds.

And NSSF senior vice president Lawrence Keane said in the news release, "Hunters and their ammunition have done more for wildlife than the CBD ever will."

Anglers have adapted to no-lead rules in special, heavily fished areas such as Yellowstone National Park. And lead sinker use has been limited or banned in entire states, including New Hampshire (despite its motto, "Live Free or Die"), Maine, New York and Vermont.

The American Sportfishing Association, which represents that industry, said there's not enough science for such a nationwide ban but adds, "ASA realizes that certain waters may be 'hot spots' for ingestion of sinkers by water birds and encourages any restrictions on lead sinkers in those waters to be based on sound science that supports the appropriate action for that water body."

The group even said it backs voluntary angler education programs that include proper disposal of lead sinkers.

The American Fisheries Society, composed of the nation's fisheries biologists, and The Wildlife Society, which bands wildlife biologists, called for a phase-out of lead sinker use.

Oh, it was easy to react instinctively to this week's petition from the environmentalists, but on further review, it appears to be the direction in which we'll be heading, if not a destination we'll soon reach.

It may be time we start thinking about getting the lead out.