Blue Fish News – May 1, 2023

What’s new at Blue Fish Canada: Blue Fish Canada volunteers and staff are hard at work preparing Youth Stewardship Kits, and as in past, the focus is on both fishing and conservation. This includes teaching youth how and when to use circle or barbless hooks, and non-lead alternatives. Along with actual tackle, youth are provided with the information needed to both fish sustainably, and engage in discussions with others who may hold opinions about the legacy of recreational fishing. It’s why we are constantly seeking out the latest science and best practices on issues such as lead fishing tackle. Read this issue’s editorial, listen to our podcast with Margie Manthey, and please share your input so we can continue to respectfully advance the conversation. Send your feedback to: BlueFishCan@gmail.com

This Week’s Feature – The Legacy of Lead Tackle

By L. Gunther

Lead fishing tackle could very well be one of the most divisive issues dogging recreational fishing, and yet, from a big picture perspective, it’s also relatively insignificant. So why is it that any talk to phase out lead fishing tackle generates such strong responses from both angling stakeholders and environmentalists? Having followed the lead tackle debate for over a dozen years, I think the problem boils down to people working with incorrect information, and worse, that banning lead is the thin edge of the wedge meant to cast fishing as an outdoor activity that should be brought to an end. Let’s look at what we already know about the legacy of lead fishing tackle.

Lead poisoning from ingested fishing tackle in common loons has been well documented. Across North America lead poisoning accounts for 49% of documented loon mortality and occurs from adult loons ingesting lead fishing tackle. Jigs and sinkers are the main culprit. But why does mortality occur, and why is it that loons swallow lead tackle in the first place?

Like many other birds, loons depend on their gizzards to help with the digestion process. The gizzard is the section of the digestive track where plant material is broken down by small bits of gravel intentionally ingested by loons. Unfortunately, when a lead sinker or jig is mistakenly added to the gizzard, lead being much softer, it too is quickly broken down by the small rocks. This “emulsified” lead is then infused into the blood of the loon leading to significant lead poisoning symptoms and often mortality.

If the loss of the loon itself isn’t enough, there’s also the plight of scavengers that consume the remains of the dead loon. It’s a meal that now includes high levels of lead, which in turn either impairs the functioning of the scavenger, or results in mortality. Yes, raptors too are impacted by lead fishing tackle.

I understand that building your own fishing lures can be quite rewarding. Purchasing lead wheel weights from tire shops, melting them down over a camp stove, and pouring the liquid lead into inexpensive molds or ones you design yourself can give an angler a real sense of accomplishment. Adding some paint, maybe a bit of fluff or feather, and selling your creations to your friends or through your local tackle shop, and voilà, an entrepreneur is born.

We now know that working with lead brings with it health risks of its own. Lead fumes generated during the melting down process, lead trimmings after weights and jigs are removed from the molds, and the dust alone generated by lead materials being moved about, can all result in the person working with the material absorbing lead into their system through their lungs, their skin, their eyes and ears, and so on. Maybe not enough to result in mortality, but lead absorption can be accumulative in that once it gets in your body it doesn’t easily come back out. Go ahead an install ventilation equipment, wear a respirator, and cover up using a hazmat suit if you want, but it’s still resulting in a part of your home, garage or shed becoming a hazard zone. Is it worth it?

I often come across old fishing tackle boxes at garage sales, junk shops, and flea markets. The first thing I notice are the loose lead jigs and sinkers tumbling around in the treys and the bottom of the box. I ask myself do I really want to put my hands into that decades old tackle box that has been accumulating lead dust for dozens of years? And I think about how lead jigs and weights are tackle that we never seem to find ourselves in short supply. It’s cheep, easily found in any shop that sells fishing tackle, and relatively long lasting, until it’s lost.

As a boy my friends and I all used our teeth to clamp lead sinkers to our fishing lines. We did it because we couldn’t afford to buy expensive needle nose plyers. Of course, with age came better sense and jobs that now meant we could afford plyers, but the temptation to clamp down on that lead sinker that keeps slipping down my line with my teeth never really goes away. And then there are the line ties on the jig heads that are clogged with paint, and yes, maybe a bit of lead, that need to be cleared out with something sharp and tough enough to break through the paint and lead so fishing line can be passed through the “eye” of the jig. All those small paint and lead fragments that are now on my fingers that I then wipe on my pants. None of this represents safe lead handling practices given what we now know.

I admit, Tungsten jigs and weights are by far superior to lead. They are smaller than lead by about 30% for the same weight, which means they will fall through the water column that much faster. Tungsten is harder, which means I get more accurate feedback when my jig head or sinker bumps into a rock, stump, gravel bottom, or some other structure that may be holding fish. It works amazingly well, but I do feel the pain when it breaks off – a single Tungsten weight can easily cost two to five dollars, depending on the size and shape.

Other lead alternatives like tin, bismuth, steel and ceramic are much less expensive than tungsten, and come close to what are still the lowest cost fishing weights and jigs – ones made out of lead. Unfortunately, the general consensus is that none of these alternative’s function as well as lead, given that they are often larger in comparison. But does it really matter?

Yes, a 3/8-ounce jig will be noticeably bigger, but the smaller sized line weights commonly used under floats when fishing for panfish don’t represent any significant difference in size or function. So why not use a lead alternative?

I think about bottom bouncers, weighing as much as 2-5 ounces of lead, and also about trolling weights that range between 1-3 ounces, or catfish or carp rigs that can get up to five ounces easily. I have yet to come across alternatives to these sizeable lead weights. But then again, do they even represent a health risk? I can’t imagine any bird or fish swallowing any of these items, and when one is lost, which doesn’t happen that often, I would think that it wouldn’t take long before they are covered over by sediment at the bottom of the lake or river. But this isn’t always the case.

While fishing for sturgeon on the lower Fraser River near Mission British Columbia, I traveled upriver aboard an aluminum jet boat equipped with a six-litre V8 engine normally found in a pickup truck. My guide told me they use to hold jet boat races among anglers, until the cost of losing and recovering boats began to out-weigh angler enthusiasm for taking part. I was told that due to the strong flow of the river and the bottom compensation of the river’s bed consisting mainly of melon-sized rocks, meant any aluminum boat that sank during the race had to be recovered relatively quickly or it would be ground into aluminum dust leaving little behind except for the iron block of the engine. It got me thinking about the 16-ounce lead weights we were using to pin down our sturgeon rigs. It wasn’t unusual for one of these giant lead sinkers to break off when snagged between several large rocks, or to come free during the fight with a sturgeon. The goal is to lose the weight, and not your entire rig, or worse, to tether a sturgeon to the bottom should your line break. That’s a lot of lead that will soon be rubbed into micro-fragments and distributed along the river’s bottom by the current for who knows how long and to what detriment.

So, we know there is no safe amount of lead to have in our homes, our water, and the toys we give to our children and grandkids. All the experts agree that lead does not belong in our water pipes, the solder we once used to connect copper water pipes, the paint we once used in our homes, and so on. It makes me think, why is it we are so stubbornly slow to transition away from lead fishing tackle?

Numerous states in the U.S. have implemented lead tackle bans. National Parks in the U.S. are the latest to join this trend. Right here in Canada there are duck sanctuaries that you are allowed to fish in, but if you are caught with a single lead weight in your boat while doing so, you could be facing a significant fine. But maybe incentives are the way to go?

Margie Manthey from the Wolf Lake Association is leading the charge on creating programs designed to insentify anglers to turn in their lead fishing tackle and receive a gift certificate to put towards the purchase of non-lead tackle. Turns out most participating anglers are just happy to have found a location where they can unload their lead tackle safely and forego the gift card. So far, the program has collected over 80 kilos of lead tackle. And no, Margie isn’t against fishing – she fishes any chance she gets, and her sons are active competitive anglers as well. When Margie isn’t busy with running the “Get the Lead Out” program, she’s spear-heading the restoration of walleye spawning habitat. Margie is my guest on The Blue Fish Radio show: https://www.spreaker.com/user/5725616/e395-wolf-lake-walleye-restoration-and-g

Pallatrax Stonze fishing weights won a best-in-show award at the 2008 ICAST show and is still going strong. EagleClaw makes a wide variety of non-lead weight and jig alternatives guaranteed to earn praise from your more environmentally minded family and friends. Once you start looking you will be surprised by the number of alternatives on the market.

Final thought, let’s not wait to have some government official implement a plan that may seem well intentioned, but is riddled with rules that make no sense. Instead, I challenge anglers everywhere to take a page from Margie’s play book and find innovative safe alternatives to educate and insentify fellow anglers to begin making the switch away from lead. It’s up to all of us to define lead tackle’s final legacy.

The Latest Fishing, Fish Health and Fish Habitat News

Fishing:

The People Traveling the World in Search of the Smallest Fish They Can Reel In / Daily Beast
While you might think fishing is all about catching the biggest fish possible and using it as a dating profile picture–or, at the very least, posting it on Instagram)–there’s an emerging group of fishermen who think just the opposite. It’s not about how big the fish is. Instead, it’s about variety. And there’s no better way to catch unique fish than by reeling in the smallest organisms that’ll bite.

Memorial planned to honour lives lost in Lake Winnipeg / CBC
Two fishing partners and their dog team, lost through the ice in 1908. A fatal lightning strike to a fishing net in the 1920s. In at least two cases, appendicitis. Shipwrecks. Fires. These are just a handful of the harrowing stories Heather Hinam has uncovered in her work as a researcher on a memorial that will honour the fisherfolk who have lost their lives to Lake Winnipeg. The New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli is organizing the fisherfolk memorial with the support of the Westshore Community Foundation.

IGFA Passports to Fishing Update / IGFA
The International Game Fish Association Passports to Fishing program was launched four years ago, and there are no signs of it slowing down! To date, this youth angling education program has reached nearly 20,000 children and families in 41 different countries around the world. Blue Fish Canada is proud to serve as Canada’s program representative.

DFO shuts down lucrative baby eel fishery in Maritimes amid poaching, safety concerns / Turtle Island News
Federal fisheries officials shut down the lucrative baby eel fishery in the Maritimes amid growing concerns of illegal poaching and violence. Unfortunately, with the public service strike, enforcement officers are no longer carrying out enforcement related activities to ensure the shutdown order is being enforced. Numerous claims by those impacted by the shutdown saying the harvest is still being carried out.

Fish:

‘Shockingly huge’ steelhead salmon escape fish farm, threatening B.C. lake / Port Alberni Valley News
It’s not clear how many farmed fish have escaped over time or what the consequences have been to the lake’s ecosystem or even the farm’s owners, the Department of Fish and Game at the B.C. Ministry of Forests as well as the aquaculture enforcement branch of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) have been repeatedly alerted to the problem. It appears the AgriMarine fish farm on Lois Lake is operating illegally, says Stan Proboszcz, senior scientist with Watershed Watch Salmon Society.

OCEARCH’S 45th Expedition: Expedition Northbound / FishingWire
OCEARCH’s data shows that prior to their spring migration north to Canada’s Atlantic coast, many white sharks use the productive continental shelf waters around the Outer Banks, North Carolina region as an overwintering and spring staging area. Alongside 42 collaborators from 28 research institutions, the organization will collect data to support 25 science projects that will help solve, for the first time, the life history puzzle of the white shark in the Western North Atlantic Ocean.

Invasive Carp Find Purpose on the Menu / FishingWire
“You know what’s the most popular food source in the world? This,” Thomas says as he points to the copi. It’s not that way in America, he says, because of our expectations. We’ll buy beef, pork, turkey and other products, but are unfamiliar with copi. Copi is a new name applied to invasive carp: grass carp, silver carp, black carp and bighead carp.

Habitat:

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is So Big, Invasive Species Are Now Thriving On It / ScienceAlert
“The issues of plastic go beyond just ingestion and entanglement,” Linsey Haram, a marine ecologist formerly at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, explained when in the process of conducting her research. “It’s creating opportunities for coastal species’ biogeography to greatly expand beyond what we previously thought was possible.” Rarely documented until now, one historical example was of coastal-dwelling invertebrates hitching a ride across the North Pacific Ocean on plastic debris swept out to sea in the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Hundreds of invertebrate species clung on for six years to debris that washed ashore in North America and Hawaii in 2017.

Will the new U.N. High Seas Treaty help protect Pacific salmon? / High Country News
The high seas begin 370 km from land and cover 43% of the earth’s surface. They are home to as many as 10 million species, yet remain one of the least understood places on Earth. In early March, negotiators representing nearly 200 nations came to a historic agreement aimed at protecting the ocean’s creatures and ecosystems. When the new United Nations High Seas Treaty was announced, marine scientists and conservationists around the globe rejoiced.

El Niño is coming and ocean temps are already at record highs / The Conversation 
It’s coming. Winds are weakening along the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Heat is building beneath the ocean surface. By July, most forecast models agree that the climate system’s biggest player – El Niño – will return for the first time in nearly four years. Specifically, El Niño tends to trigger intense and widespread periods of extreme ocean warming known as marine heat waves. Global ocean temperatures are already at record highs, so El Niño-induced marine heat waves could push many sensitive fisheries to a breaking point.

The Gruesome Ways Volcanoes Kill Fish / Hakai
Whether the eruption is underwater or on land, fish don’t have an easy time dealing with nature’s fury. Volcanoes can be life-threatening for fish. A major eruption in 2011 in Chile, for instance, killed 4.5 million of them. Researchers have studied how lava flows, hot gases, and deadly debris can cause mass die-offs or even cut fish off from the sea in suddenly landlocked lakes.

Mapping infection hotspots in wild Pacific salmon / PSF
A new study assesses the marine distribution of dozens of infectious agents in wild Pacific salmon in the marine environment. This novel study reveals where salmon populations have experienced infection “hotspots,” some featuring potentially detrimental pathogens. The research, supported by the Pacific Salmon Foundation (PSF)’s Salmon Health team, provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the marine distributions of infectious agents in Chinook, coho, and sockeye salmon in B.C. during their first year at sea.

Indigenous:

Land back: Osoyoos Indian Band reclaims sacred salmon fishing site / iNFOnews
The Osoyoos Indian Band is celebrating the return of an important piece of land which includes a sacred salmon fishing site that’s been utilized by syilx people for thousands of years. Set aside in 1877, the 71 acres of Osoyoos Indian Reserve was taken back by the federal and provincial governments in 1913 through the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission, which authorized “British Columbia” to add to, reduce and even eliminate Indian reservations. Much of the land from that original Osoyoos Indian Reserve is now “owned” by private homeowners, one of whom has displayed an inaccurate sign on their front yard which says that the land where their property is situated is “ceded.”

Industry:

Rebuilding Abundance Symposium Follow-Up Report / Oceana Canada
In the fall of 2022 Oceana Canada hosted the Rebuilding Abundance symposium. The event included creative and insightful conversations so desperately needed on rebuilding fish and fisheries in Canada. Participants shared differing views and identified the concerns that united everyone. There was a shared sense that by working collaboratively it’s possible to achieve a better future for the ocean and for those who depend on healthy fisheries. Oceana Canada has now produced a report that summarizes the presentations and discussions and identifies Oceana Canada’s key recommendations for Fisheries and Oceans Canada to create more abundant and sustainable fisheries.

Status of Stocks 2022 / NOAA Fisheries
NOAA Fisheries’ 2022 Status of Stocks shows continued progress in science and management for U.S. fisheries. Key takeaways include: 93 percent of stocks are not subject to overfishing and 81 percent are not overfished; the overfishing list included 24 stocks and the overfished list included 48 stocks, which are decreases from 2021; and two stocks were rebuilt, bringing the total to 49 rebuilt stocks since 2000. U.S. commercial and recreational fishing provided 1.7 million jobs and $253 billion in sales across the broader economy in 2020.

Boating:

Boat Noise Consultation Results Released / Transport Canada
In early 2022 Transport Canada (TC) launched a “Let’s Talk” web portal to collect public comments about possible changes to small vessel (boat) noise emissions. This month (April 2023) TC has released, “What we heard: Small vessel noise emissions” outlining which of the options proposed was most popular with public respondents. Most respondents strongly disagreed with the idea of not making any changes to the Small Vessel Regulations.

Podcasts:

E395 Wolf Lake Walleye Restoration and “Get the Led Out” / BFR
Margie Manthey is a true local champion for her numerous efforts to improve the future of fish and fishing on Wolf Lake. The lake is located near Westport in eastern Ontario in a region known as South Frontenac. A passionate angler and Director of Fishing for the Wolf Lake Association, Margie has been instrumental in rehabilitating walleye spawning beds, replacing “perched” culverts, and strengthening shoreline resilience. But, her main passion is incentivsing anglers to switch away from using lead weights and jigs. Her “get the lead out” program resulted in over 80 kilos of lead fishing tackle being voluntarily turned in by anglers in just one year.

Special Guest Feature American Sportfishing Association Issues Statement on National Wildlife Refuge Lead Tackle Restrictions

On September 15 2022 the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service released a final rule announcing the prohibition of lead fishing tackle on certain National Wildlife Refuges that are being opened to fishing. The American Sportfishing Association issued the following statement from Vice President of Government Affairs Mike Leonard.

“It is deeply disappointing that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) ignored science and the concerns of the sportfishing industry. USFWS is charged with ensuring fish and wildlife resource management is rooted in the best available data and science. This proposed rule runs counter to that charge, and sets a dangerous precedent for future unwarranted bans on fishing tackle. Although USFWS states that this decision is based on concerns that lead ammunition and tackle have negative impacts on the health and wellbeing of both humans and wildlife, USFWS provided zero evidence of lead fishing tackle causing any negative impacts in these refuges.

“As we have previously said, ASA and the entire sportfishing community fully support science-based conservation initiatives. Our industry has long made sacrifices for the betterment of the environment and wildlife. While anglers should have the choice of whether they want to use alternatives, it is important to recognize that non-lead tackle may be more expensive and perform worse.

“We hope that USFWS realizes the error they made in this rule and reconsiders its implementation. Anglers should be able to keep using traditional fishing tackle as they have for generations.

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