Actually.. the facts of the matter are that Mercury is the leading issue by Far for polution in our waters and kills far more fish and birds than Lead ever has.. It is believed that lead sinkers get digested by loons and causes death in the birds. The bill has been put forth by very strong supporters of the loon preservation committee. So restrictions without fact or data never seemed to be good. I don't see any data or fact in anything regarding Lead Fishing Equipment. Just my opinion..

In New England, a 2.5-year study on the mortality of the common loon found that 52% of the dead birds had died from lead poisoning. In New Hampshire, 64% of the dead loons that were collected for the study were found to have ingested lead sinkers. In Michigan, a 15-year study found that lead poisoning (primarily from lead jigs) was the number one cause of death at 24% of the overall mortality. Other studies have shown that 25% of dead eagles contained toxic levels of lead.

To me, those numbers make it obvious that lead poisoning is a major issue. My opinion is that there is ample data to support the regulations. Lead may not affect as broad a spectrum of wildlife as mercury does but it is still a problem. As fishermen and sportsmen in general I think we should be as concerned about the health of loons and eagles as we are our precious salmon.

Furthermore, I believe it is just common sense that the introduction of toxic heavy metals (such as lead) to our waterbodies is not a good idea. We won't put it in the paint that we use in our homes so why would we dump it into our lakes and rivers?

I thought there were laws on lead weights, etc. in NH anyhow, am I missing smotehing ???

John S.

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In New England, a 2.5-year study on the mortality of the common loon found that 52% of the dead birds had died from lead poisoning. In New Hampshire, 64% of the dead loons that were collected for the study were found to have ingested lead sinkers. In Michigan, a 15-year study found that lead poisoning (primarily from lead jigs) was the number one cause of death at 24% of the overall mortality. Other studies have shown that 25% of dead eagles contained toxic levels of lead.

To me, those numbers make it obvious that lead poisoning is a major issue. My opinion is that there is ample data to support the regulations. Lead may not affect as broad a spectrum of wildlife as mercury does but it is still a problem. As fishermen and sportsmen in general I think we should be as concerned about the health of loons and eagles as we are our precious salmon.

Furthermore, I believe it is just common sense that the introduction of toxic heavy metals (such as lead) to our waterbodies is not a good idea. We won't put it in the paint that we use in our homes so why would we dump it into our lakes and rivers?

With those numbers the way you have put them in this text it would seem that way.. But What number of Loons in 2.5 years were found dead.. If it were 4 loons and 2 of them had lead poisoning from jigs or weights that would be 54%.. Percentages are easily misleading.. Don't fall for that Get the actaul data from the Loon Preservations society of the Federal Wildlife Biologist in Wentworth Location.. They conduct loon Surveys and studies yearly..

There were 31 dead loons in the 2.5-year New England study and 186 dead loons in the 15-year Michigan study. That works out to 12.4 loons per year in each region. But that is just the number of birds studied and not the total number of loon deaths. The total number of deaths is higher and I don't know what those numbers are. To put things into perspective, during the Summer of 2006 11 dead loons were collected in New Hampshire alone with 5 of those deaths confirmed to be from lead poisoning. Extrapolating that data to a full year would mean that lead fishing gear is responsible for up to 20 loon deaths a year in New Hampshire alone. For a species that is listed as threatened those numbers are very significant.

Perhaps you should get the actual data before running your mouth and claiming that the regulations are unfounded.

I can see both sides of this issue.Now i have seen both tin and steel sinkers why cant the companys that make bismith for waterfowl hunting come up with a jighead for us fisherman.

I agree there is no good reason not to remove lead. Even if it is less toxic it is still quite toxic. The problem is the birds are attracted to the faintly shiny nature and size of the sinkers. They ingest small rocks of the same size to aid digestion, so they are naturally inclined to gobble shiny or painted lead sinkers or jigs so as long as there are fisherman out there using and losing them.

I had also though lead was already banned in NH, so I realize it would certainly inconvenience folks like Alan at AJs who make tons of their own jigs. Lead is easy to work with. But there have got to be other much less toxic alloys that are workable at a sufficiently low enough temperature. I see that my lead less weights are mostly tin, tungsten or stainless. I would think stainless would be impracticle to work with in the small shop, but I wonder about tungsten and tin? Any metallurgists out there?

The main issue here is the size of the market! NH is a little dinky state with a little dinky number of fishers. I f you want change you need a bigger market! For all of those who love the loon and that magic sound (as do we all) and hate lead (and us) this question? beside all of your crying (some well deserved) how much money have you put up year after year after year to improve the resource! I'm not talking about letters to the editors or TV shots. Where is your yearly dollar contribution??