Lead is everywhere in fishing. Think about all of your equipment and it would be hard to imagine going fishing without lead in jigs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and weights. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and other agencies have been trying hard to eliminate the use of lead in hunting and fishing. The shooting industry just claimed a major win by petitioning the EPA to remove the proposed ban on lead in ammunition. The EPA claimed it "lacked the authority under the Toxic Substances Control Act to regulate ammunition." The entire article was just posted today on thefishingwire.com and can be seen here.
The thing that scares me, and should scare all fisherman is this: 'Sinkers" -fishing tackle - however are not off the hook: As there are no similar jurisdictional issues relating to the agency's authority over fishing sinkers, EPA - as required by law - will continue formally reviewing a second part of the petition related to fishing sinkers." Now, I have almost completely cut out lead in my fishing weights, as I feel Tungsten is a better option, but what about all of the rest of the tackle we use?
This is an issue I talked about last November when Washington State proposed a ban on lead to save the loons. You can see that topic here. The eventual outcome was no change in law, but this time might be different. I suggest we all do what the shooting industry did and petition the EPA, you can do so make your voice heard by going to this site and making your comments.
2 comments:
I just came to your post and reading above thing it is very impressive me and it is very nice blog. Thanks a lot for sharing this.
Thanks Fishing Tackle!
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