Sushihunter
Active Member
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012516481_hunting03.html
Groups seek ban on lead in hunters' guns, fishing tackle
By FELICITY BARRINGER
The New York Times
As the U.S. military begins to embrace "green bullets," environmental groups are pushing state and federal officials to ban the use of lead in hunters' guns and fishermen's tackle.
Their goal is to protect both the animals that scavenge the carcasses of hunted prey and the people who consume the meat.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan to file a petition Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking a nationwide ban on lead-based sporting ammunition and fishing tackle.
The petitioners argue that "it is now incontrovertible fact" that lead fragments in the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets or lead pellets are "a serious source of lead exposure to scavenging animals" and a health risk to humans who eat hunters' kills.
Scientists have found that chronic lead poisoning in birds leads to "appetite loss, anemia, anorexia, reproductive or neurological impairment, immune suppression, weakness, and susceptibility to predation and starvation," the petition said.
Lead's toxicity has long been known, and most of the uses that led to human exposure, like the manufacture of lead paint, have been banned for decades. Lead ammunition consumed only about 3 percent of the 6.4 million tons of lead used worldwide in 2000, according to a 2003 report by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Michael Fry, a wildlife toxicologist who directs conservation advocacy for the American Bird Conservancy, said that even sublethal levels of lead in condors, bald eagles and other raptors can be debilitating, affecting their ability to fly and avoid collisions.
But hunting organizations dispute the dimensions of the problem. Larry Keane, the vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said the petition was "fundamentally flawed as a matter of science."
"You don't manage harm to individual animals," he said. "Wildlife biologists manage wildlife populations."
Populations of eagles, one of the raptors cited by the petition as being at risk, are soaring, Keane added.
Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said several regional bird populations were indeed affected by ingesting lead ammunition or fishing tackle, including the endangered Mississippi sandhilll crane; eiders in Alaska, which are listed as threatened by the Interior Department; and trumpeter swans, considered species of concern in the Rocky Mountain West.
"If we had to show major population-level effects on many species to evaluate anything that caused ecological harm, we'd never ban anything," he said. "There is compelling evidence of harm to many species, and there are alternatives. It doesn't make sense to continue with it."
Bullets made from copper, bismuth and various alloys have been under development for 20 years or more.
In June, the Army said it was shipping 1 million rounds of a new 5.56-mm lead-free cartridge that had been in development for a decade to its troops in Afghanistan.
Copyright © The Seattle Times Company
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
Groups seek ban on lead in hunters' guns, fishing tackle
By FELICITY BARRINGER
The New York Times
As the U.S. military begins to embrace "green bullets," environmental groups are pushing state and federal officials to ban the use of lead in hunters' guns and fishermen's tackle.
Their goal is to protect both the animals that scavenge the carcasses of hunted prey and the people who consume the meat.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the American Bird Conservancy plan to file a petition Tuesday with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking a nationwide ban on lead-based sporting ammunition and fishing tackle.
The petitioners argue that "it is now incontrovertible fact" that lead fragments in the bodies of animals shot with lead bullets or lead pellets are "a serious source of lead exposure to scavenging animals" and a health risk to humans who eat hunters' kills.
Scientists have found that chronic lead poisoning in birds leads to "appetite loss, anemia, anorexia, reproductive or neurological impairment, immune suppression, weakness, and susceptibility to predation and starvation," the petition said.
Lead's toxicity has long been known, and most of the uses that led to human exposure, like the manufacture of lead paint, have been banned for decades. Lead ammunition consumed only about 3 percent of the 6.4 million tons of lead used worldwide in 2000, according to a 2003 report by the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Michael Fry, a wildlife toxicologist who directs conservation advocacy for the American Bird Conservancy, said that even sublethal levels of lead in condors, bald eagles and other raptors can be debilitating, affecting their ability to fly and avoid collisions.
But hunting organizations dispute the dimensions of the problem. Larry Keane, the vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said the petition was "fundamentally flawed as a matter of science."
"You don't manage harm to individual animals," he said. "Wildlife biologists manage wildlife populations."
Populations of eagles, one of the raptors cited by the petition as being at risk, are soaring, Keane added.
Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, said several regional bird populations were indeed affected by ingesting lead ammunition or fishing tackle, including the endangered Mississippi sandhilll crane; eiders in Alaska, which are listed as threatened by the Interior Department; and trumpeter swans, considered species of concern in the Rocky Mountain West.
"If we had to show major population-level effects on many species to evaluate anything that caused ecological harm, we'd never ban anything," he said. "There is compelling evidence of harm to many species, and there are alternatives. It doesn't make sense to continue with it."
Bullets made from copper, bismuth and various alloys have been under development for 20 years or more.
In June, the Army said it was shipping 1 million rounds of a new 5.56-mm lead-free cartridge that had been in development for a decade to its troops in Afghanistan.
Copyright © The Seattle Times Company
Jim's Fishing Charters
www.JimsFishing.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/Sushihunter250
