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Outdoors: Time to get the lead out of all hunting, fishing

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/12/2008 5:39 am

Wisconsin is taking a step in the right direction when, beginning this fall, it will require dove hunters on public lands to use non-toxic shot. But, it isn't enough.

It's time to get the lead out from all hunting and fishing uses of this toxic substance.

Lead has been used since Roman times and it has been known to be toxic since people developed lead poisoning after drinking from lead goblets.

Milt Friend, retired director of the USGS National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, said that although society has known about the problems with lead for centuries, it is a double-edged sword with many benefits, leading to its wide use, but also hidden dangers.

"Lead poisoning is a chronic disease in which you don't see sudden mass mortalities. It is insidious so it is hard for people to associate with the negative aspects when they enjoy the positive aspects," Friend said. "People must fully understand the pros and cons, and the real damages and then be motivated to use alternatives."

Wildlife species affected are often scavenger species that feed upon other species which may have lead imbedded in their tissues or have ingested spent lead shot or lead sinkers. The raptor or predator then becomes ill.

In North America, ducks and geese for years suffered from lead poisoning by eating spent lead shot on the bottom of ponds and marshes assuming it was grit needed for digestion. It was estimated that about 2 million waterfowl died each year in North America from lead poisoning.

In times of plenty, with lots of waterfowl, people didn't see the dead birds and there was little concern. But with declining populations and research showing the extent of the losses, state and federal governments led the way to a national ban on lead shot for waterfowl hunting in 1991.

Wisconsin, and one of its conservationists (the late Bill Peterburs), was a leader and began selling experimental "iron" shot, later called steel shot, as early as the 1970s.

"Personally I think we are dealing with a toxic substance to which there are alternatives and there is no rational reason not to pursue the alternatives," Friend said. "Obstacles are the cost factors."

With increasing human populations and losses of habitat, wildlife have greater challenges today than in the past.

"The challenges to wildlife are such that we can no longer absorb unnecessary losses, such as from fishing sinkers and lead shot," Friend said. "It is irrational not to move on as a society and get rid of lead.

"None of this will happen voluntarily, because of the economic liability to manufacturers," he said. "Why should someone go and retool and invest in other materials hoping that it will change their way of doing things? It will take legislation."

Sportsmen claim to be conservationists, and as such cannot say that they are preserving the sport and wildlife species while allowing species they don't hunt to die because of lead shot, bullets and sinkers.

"We need to take responsibility. We are the ones putting it out there," Friend said.

Friend is preparing a presentation for a lead shot conference in May in Boise, Idaho, to look at the extent of lead poisoning in wildlife.

Studies of California condors in Arizona, several of which have succumbed to lead poisoning from eating gut piles from hunter-shot deer, have also shown that deer shot with a rifle bullet often contain bullet fragments, and this could also be a source of lead exposure to hunters who eat the meat as well as scavengers.

In Wisconsin

Sean Strom, wildlife toxicologist for the Department of Natural Resources, said that lead poisoning is relatively common for some species today.

"About 30 percent of all trumpeter swan deaths in Wisconsin are related to lead poisoning, and 15 to 20 percent of all bald eagle deaths are due to lead poisoning," Strom said. "In loons, about 35 percent of all deaths are due to lead poisoning."

Strom said that he is not sure about lead poisoning in other species because they haven't looked for lead poisoning in them.

Sometimes lead poisoning comes from picking up lead shot or sinkers on the bottom of water bodies. But for eagles it is usually eating animals that were wounded from lead poisoning or scavenging gut piles after the deer hunting season.

Strom said that lead poisoning cases in bald eagles begin to increase in October, peak in December and tail off after that which suggests it perfectly coincides with Wisconsin's deer hunting seasons.

"Lead is extremely toxic, one of the most toxic metals, and has a huge array of adverse impacts," Strom said. "There can be slight alternations in the animals' bio-chemistry and physiological systems all the way up to serious organ damage and death."

Strom said that studies of subsistence hunters in the Arctic, who use lead shot, show higher levels of lead in their blood.

The DNR is beginning an internal team to look further at the problem, and the Minnesota DNR has a committee studying ways to reduce lead in the environment.

The Minnesota DNR Non-toxic Shot Advisory committee concluded in 2006 that it is inevitable that lead shot will have to be restricted for all shotgun hunting at some future time.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/12/2008 5:39 am