Ten wild trumpeter swans at Vadnais Height's Sucker Lake died from lead poisoning, most likely ingested in the form of lost or discarded sinkers. These painful deaths do not need to be repeated, however, as the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) urges Minnesota's anglers to use non-toxic alternatives.
Bluestem believes a better policy would be to ban all lead sinkers for use in the state's waters--along with banning the use of lead shot by firearm hunters on public lands. Lead is a toxic poison.
At the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Deanna Weniger reports in Dead trumpeter swans in Vadnais Heights had toxic lead levels, the U of M reports:
Dead trumpeter swans found at Sucker Lake in Vadnais Heights earlier this month died of lead poisoning, according to a University of Minnesota diagnostic lab report.
Members of the Vadnais Lake Area Water Management Organization (VLAWMO), who investigated the swan deaths, originally thought the swans had died of malnutrition.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimates that 40 percent of Minnesota trumpeter swan deaths are caused by lead poisoning.
“Swans use their long necks to move the substrate around looking for pebbles that are the right size for their gizzard,” Tanner said. “Lead shot and sinkers are just the right size for gizzard stones.”
Unlike pebbles, shots and sinkers are soft, so instead of passing through the bird in a solid chunk, the lead is ground up in the gizzard and incorporated into the tissues.
“This was the result we anticipated,” said Tami Vogel, communications director for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Minnesota. “We see dozens of animals every year, including swans, with lead toxicity. One pellet is all it takes to kill an adult trumpeter swan. Our new studies are showing lead in animals you would not suspect — opossums, squirrels, etc. It’s everywhere, and it’s toxic.”
Some of the lead is eaten by scavengers, like coyotes, who eat the dead swans.
A bird with lead poisoning will have physical and behavioral changes, including loss of balance, gasping, tremors, and impaired ability to fly. The weakened bird is more vulnerable to predators, or it may have trouble feeding, mating, nesting, and caring for its young. It becomes emaciated and often dies within two to three weeks after eating the lead, according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Read the rest of the sad story in the Pioneer Press.
Both Weniger and the MPCA note that the Minnesota legislature opted to pursue educational and voluntary programs to urge fisher folk to use nontoxic weights. From the MPCA's article, Nontoxic tackle: let's get the lead out:
During the 2002-03 session in Minnesota, the state Legislature considered banning the sale and use of lead tackle. But after a series of stakeholder discussions, the groups involved agreed that a better approach was to educate anglers about the alternatives to lead tackle and to offer opportunities to try out non-lead sinkers and jigs. This effort is supported by the cooperation of tackle manufacturers, retailers, lake associations, conservation organizations, sports enthusiasts, and government.
In a growing number of areas outside Minnesota, non-lead tackle isn't just a good idea — it's the law. Restrictions and bans of lead fishing sinkers and jigs are becoming more common in the United States and other countries.
The article suggests voluntary ways to eliminate lead tackle and provides a list of non-toxic tackle manufacturers.
Swans aren't the only victims of lead tackle. Last year at the Cornell Bird Lab, Lauren Chambliss reported in Lead Fishing Tackle Is Still a Problem for Common Loons:
In Minnesota, home to roughly 12,000 loons, the legislature voted down a ban on lead sinkers in 2003. Instead, that state’s wildlife conservationists rely on public education campaigns and general recommendations for anglers about using nonleaded fishing tackle.
But even in Minnesota, where the loon is the state bird, generations of anglers are set in their ways, and it’s an uphill battle to get them to switch their fishing tackle.
“Fishing here is a huge industry and trying to sensitize that many people about an issue like this, especially for people using lead sinkers their whole life, it’s a reeducation process,” says Carrol Henderson, the nongame wildlife program supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. ..
We can remember when Trumpeter Swans began returning to prairie potholes and lakes. The first time we saw a small flock of swans, on Le Sueur County's Lake Emily, the birds were sleeping on an ice floe. As we slowing advanced toward the water, one of the swans woke, stood up and looked us in the eye. Yeats' great poem came to mind, although we didn't get that close or take on the cob's knowledge or his power.
Photo: Trumpeter swans, rumored to be the world's largest waterfowl.
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