Laura Erickson's For the Birds

When the ice goes out on northland lakes each spring, sometimes the very day the ice disappears, in come the loons. The Common Loon has been Minnesota’s state bird since the early 1960s, and is perhaps the most popular, beloved symbol of wilderness. When people see loons on their lake return, they can’t help but feel happy and hopeful. Over the quarter of a century that I’ve been birding, loons have had their ups and downs, but even as we have cleaned up some sources of pollution, we continue to put one toxin directly into the waters where loons live—lead. Tufts University Wildlife Clinic has collected over 500 loons found dead during the course of a 12 year study—the largest study of its kind ever done—and they necropsied each one. They found that 54% of the deaths were due to lead poisoning.

How do loons get lead poisoning? One of the worst sources, which continues to pour into lakes, is from fishermen, and their lead sinkers. Loons pick up the sinkers as grit. And a single lead sinker has enough lead to kill. Lead poisoning doesn’t kill quickly—it takes a long time for a sinker to dissolve in a loon’s stomach. But even at sub-lethal levels lead affects a loon’s physiology, making it more vulnerable to predation and accidental death from things like collisions with boats. Chronic lead may also change a host of mating, nesting, and migrating behaviors.

New Hampshire, Maine, and New York have passed legislation restricting the manufacturing, sale, or use of lead sinkers and jigs, but they’re the only states who have so far done so. Minnesota has been looking into the issue, but so far hasn’t acted on it. Water Gremlin, the largest manufacturer of lead sinkers, is one of only 12 manufacturers nationwide that also carries the alternatives, and one other manufacturer in Minnesota makes the alternatives, so switching to non-lead sinkers should be a simple thing. But even though non-lead sinkers are easy for tackle and fishing stores to order, a great many of them don’t carry them, because not enough fishermen ask for them.

We humans have known about the dangers of lead for centuries—the fall of the Roman Empire came about in part from people in power drinking from lead and lead-glazed goblets. Lead is, of course, an element, so it never breaks down into anything less lethal. Once a lead sinker is out there, it’s hard or even impossible get it out again. And the issue of lead sinkers is a lot simpler than the issue of lead shot for hunters—after all, the only thing a sinker needs to do is sink. Why use a toxic metal when it doesn’t even make the fishing easier or better?

This Friday, at 2 pm at UMDs Bohannon Hall, there is going to be a presentation and discussion titled the “Effects of Lead Fishing Tackle on Minnesota’s Wildlife.” The presenters will be Sarah Donahue and Molly Zender, University of Minnesota, Duluth graduate students in Environmental Education. It promises to be a fascinating program, a necessary first step to solving this simple but toxic problem that hurts a bird closely identified with north country. I hope there’s a big turnout at the meeting. Even more, I hope people start realizing that when there are non-toxic alternatives, there is no reason not to “get the lead out.”