The EPA started taking public comment August 25th and will continue taking comments until the end of October. I know many of you city folks don't like guns, so I wouldn't imagine you care too much. If you fish, though, you should know that they are also taking comments on the possible banning of lead fishing tackle. In reality, after a few days of public comment, the EPA says they do not have the authority to ban lead bullets, and will not be pursuing a lead bullet ban, but will continue to take public comment. They ARE still considering whether to support a ban of lead fishing gear. http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/48D939B5009411038525778C00768006 Go Blazers
I am a pretty straightfowrard liberal, but I grew up in southern Oregon fishing at least twice a week. It was a part of our nightly dinner. There is nothing like being hungry, walking to the river and catching a few trout, bringing them home and cooking them up. Seriously. But I look bback at all of my old fishing adventures, mainly my weekly steelhead trips on the north Umpqua, south Umpqua, Rogue, and Coquille rivers, and see that I singlehandedly poisoned the environment. We drift fished for steelhead where you let a lead pencil sinker bounce off the rocks on the bottom with your bait on a leader floating above. We lost soooo many of those in the course of my life, and the spots we fished were "hotspots" and fished by sooo many other people. Lead is a serious thing. And it should be taken seriously. There are much safer alternatives to lead that can still add weight to your line but not be so deadly to the health of the fish, the water, the birds of prey, the otters, the mollusks, and the humans who feed on them. It would not bother me one bit of lead weights were outlawed in Oregon waters. It would force us to use another alternative and it would help us all in the longrun.
When I was growing up my dad & I surf fished for salmon on the coast (when salmon could still be caught that way). We used an old spark plug for a weight.
They banned lead shot for duck hunting a decade or so ago. Steel shot is about 50% more expensive and less efficient because it's lighter weight, so you wind up getting more wounded birds who get away (and then die later). Still, though, I think it's a fair tradeoff. I don't have a problem with banning lead for fishing and hunting game near rivers/lakes. It's nonsense, though, for something like chukar/grouse hunting or bighorn sheep hunting, where you mostly are shooting at the side of hills far removed from any water. I guess you could argue that trace amounts make their way to streams, but I need some convincing that it's a very significant amount.
No matter how you want to spin it, lead is some nasty stuff, the less of it we use in any application (when a viable alternative exists) seems the right way to go.
This has nothing to do with the environment. It is another simple step in the New World Order's plan to disarm the only enemy force in the world still strong enough to stop them, American citizens.
Hard to replace lead as the ideal fishing sinker, simply due to weight to size ratio and the dull finish. Gold jumps to mind, but too shiny and probably a bit spendy for most fishing budgets. And anything shiny would kill far more fish who would be attracted to eat it.
How come the cabal that is "the new world order" hasn't squashed non-toxic shot: http://www.cabelas.com/story-123/ross_nontoxic_shot/10201/Non-Toxic%252BShot%252BBuyer%252527s%252BGuide.shtml If they can develop technology that mimics lead for one application, it's hard to see how they can't do it for others. Anyway, it's hard to imagine how "big brother" will really give a shit how many trout you catch or ducks you kill. When the black helicoptors come for you, you will already be dead from the radioactive isotope that worked its way into your testicles from the time you drank from a water fountain in the public library. You never should have removed the tinfoil cock ring, no matter how much it itched.
Now you're probably asking yourself, "How did he know about the cock ring?" Oh man, you just don't have any idea how deep this goes. Here's a little hint--the giraffe's chewing is synchronized to something, and it's going to be big. I can't say what, but if you ever come to this site and he's stopped chewing, kiss your kids and say your prayers, because it's on baby, it's on.
