That is why recycled fishing line bins at launch ramps and access sites are such a good idea. Because of them, miles and miles of line are properly disposed of instead of being tossed into water or onto land.

Dead heron hung by fishing line. Photo by: Robert Montgomery

How do I know this? The Good Ole Boys Bass Club of New York has collected 6.5 pounds of monofilament during two years of maintaining these bins. One pound of 10-pound-test line is 10,000 yards long. One mile is 1,760 yards. You do the math.

But we're now learning that even line inside the bins can be fatal to birds.

The Missouri Department of Conservation says this:

"It recently came to our attention that the receptacles themselves could be hazards to some cavity-nesting birds. Tree swallows and prothonotary warblers were found dead and entangled in fishing line inside similar receptacles in other states. The birds apparently see the plastic tubes as potential nest sites but become entangled in the used line upon entering."

Notice the bin is perfect sized for a small bird to fit it

A simple modification solves the problem. A rubber cover is placed over the opening, with a slit down the middle to allow line to be inserted, while keeping birds out. Go here to read more about how to do it: mdc.mo.gov/blogs/fresh-afield/best-laid-plans-birds-and-men

Also check out Protect Birds from the Danger of Open Pipes here: ca.audubon.org/workinglands-pipes.php

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From the Publisher: This short story was worth space on our front page -- and your time to properly discard your used line is way more valuable to our community and environment than our pixel space. So read this twice if you need to, and stick a sign on your head if you keep forgetting. That one dead bird Robert shot is enough to make me think of how many times I 'accidentally' didn't pay attention to eight feet of line that got torn or lost during (or after) a battle with a big fish, or a tangle that got me p-eed off. Take care of where we live. It's all our back yards, after all.

The Tarpon Genetics Recapture Study uses the analysis of tarpon DNA to establish a DNA "fingerprint" of tarpon in Florida. DNA samples are collected and submitted by volunteers eager to protect the silver kings through better understanding of tarpon biology. Learn about the purpose, mechanics, and early results of this study and how you can play an active and vital role in this research.

DNA Data for Biologists, Points for Anglers

The Professional Tarpon Tournament Series awards bonus points to anglers for assisting the Tarpon Genetic Recapture Study

The Tarpon Genetic Recapture Study is for Everyone

Tarpon anglers are invited to assist researchers by safely and harmlessly removing, storing, and delivering samples of skin cells of captured tarpon.

2011 Tarpon Genetic Recapture Study Newsletter and Library

The current newsletter and archive of past newsletters issued by the Tarpon Genetic Recapture Study.

Tarpon DNA Sample Kit Distribution and Collection Locations

Need to drop off a tarpon DNA sample or pick up a new kit? Find a participating bait and tackle shop, marina or other fishing related business on our drop spot locater list and maps?

The Atlantic sturgeon was recently listed under the Endangered Species Act. Oddly enough, this hasn't been creating much news. The Internet is silent.

Atlantic sturgeon, like salmon and striped bass, live at sea but spawn in freshwater rivers. The species has been steadily declining from northern Florida to Maine since the Industrial Revolution.

NOAA’s website lists three Atlantic sturgeon traits. Here's a crash course in sturgeon ecology. Sturgeon are:

• Slow-growing
• Late-maturing
• Estuary-dependent

Not great traits to have if you’re a species on the verge of obsolescence. Best to be a sparrow, squid or a mahi-mahi.

A Buckler plate from an Atlantic sturgeon

How you perceive the Atlantic sturgeon says something about the kind of person you are, the attitudes you carry. We’re all a little crazy. Our views change with our moods. What’d Freud say in his famous study about the mind?

I can’t remember. But when I read it, I remember thinking the man made sense.

I got to thinking about sturgeon while I ran errands in town. It was Valentine’s Day and the stores and streets were packed with bodies and cars. I’d yet to buy my wife, Jen, flowers. I stood outside the Wakefield Mall and watched trash blow across the parking lot. I came up with this sturgeon list.

1. All species—the world’s biodiversity—need protection. No matter where you live you must care about where you don’t. We share the earth with all. Each species fits a niche — has a reason for being there. Who knows the role sturgeon play in the rivers they use, and no amount of research will ever tell us. Honey bees, the polinators. The fate of flowers. The Atlantic sturgeon’s extinction could cause a landslide of unforeseen problems: a whole ecosystem in shock.

2. I live in Rhode Island. We have our own problems to deal with.

3. What are the sturgeon’s stats? How important is this fish to commerce? Does it drive tourism anywhere? What about sport and commercial fisheries? How much can we realistically do if the fish isn’t in some way a tangible resource to us? I can’t see putting huge amounts of effort into saving them.

4. Atlantic sturgeon are very cool. Ancient, older than the rivers they spawn in, older than the land, they’re almost a mix between reptile and fish. I love their scales and buckler plates—like an armored tank. A twelve-foot sturgeon answers to no one.
The sturgeon has been in my life. I’m fortunate there. I have touched them, released them back into the Atlantic, observed their swimming.
I’ve seen them dead on deck. I even have a sturgeon scale on my mantelpiece. I cut it from a dead fish. I know that’s illegal to do; it says so in the Endangered Species Act. So yes, I want to help this fish. But I won’t. Why? I don’t know. I won’t write any letters or emails. I won’t draw up any proposals. I won’t join small groups and coalitions. I won’t go and participate in any of the river cleanups or dam removals during the first annual sturgeon week.

5. I pay a mortgage. I give remaining money to other things. A sturgeon is not one of them.

6. This is a call to action. A call to apply pressure to any and all major agricultural players from Florida to Maine. All the industries along the rivers—clean up your act! And fisheries? Trawl gear and gill nets? Time to eliminate any incidental take of Atlantic sturgeon. Just figure it out. It’s the law. And if you’re the Navy and you use rivers and estuaries, it’s time to rethink your dredging practices. Time to save the sturgeon—extinction’s forever.

7. The now-endangered Atlantic sturgeon: There’s gotta be a federal grant in there somewhere…

8. Sports and fishing. I still cry when I see the final moments at Lake Placid, when we won gold. And Orr’s famous goal when he was suspended in the air, the crowd behind him off their feet, exploding like surf. I love to fish. A big striper at night on a plug...it defines me, calls me back to my childhood. When I fish an estuary my head goes many places, but I don’t think about sturgeon. Their image hasn't touched me, become part of my soul.

10. Who has the jurisdiction on this? Who makes the final call? No FMP, not much data… ASMFC or the Mid-Atlantic Council or New England. Or both. Or all three?

11. To help the sturgeon is to help all anadromous fish: striped bass, shad and river herring. Let’s get out there and get our hands dirty. Pull a shopping cart from the Connecticut, the Taunton. Clean up the rivers. Let’s use good, basic husbandry. Leave the rest in God’s hands.

From the Publisher: J.P. Lee is an outstanding writer and a deckhand on an inshore fishing boat in Rhode Island. He majored in Fisheries Science at the University of Rhode Island and has worked on research boats, oyster farms and many kinds of commercial fishing boats (trawlers, lobster boats, gillnetters and longliners).

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No research supports their charges that significant numbers of eagles, loons, and other birds die of lead poisoning from fishing weights. But, they are not deterred by facts. Rather, they hope that their use of eagles and loons as “victims” will fuel an emotional landslide of support from the public and force government officials to bow to the pressure.

Split Shot or Game That's been Shot?

The emeritus director and founder of the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota just slapped preservationists upside the head with the truth in a letter to ProMED, a mail website maintained by the International Society for Infectious Diseases.

It’s not what Dr. Patrick T. Redig said, It’s what he didn’t say. In presenting the facts about eagle deaths from lead poisoning, he did NOT mention lead fishing tackle as a contributor.

In short, eagles are dying from ingesting deer and small game remains that are contaminated with spent lead ammunition.

“As the annual poisoning event occurs from mid-November through March, a time when most waterfowl have left the shallow ponds where accumulated lead shot is available in the sediments, it is also quite certain that poisoning of eagles is not related to accumulated lead residues in waterfowl carcasses.” Redig said.

That means that lead objects in the water, whether from anglers or waterfowl hunters, have nothing to do with eagle deaths.

Unintentional deaths of eagles are certainly a tragedy, and the causes should be addressed --- now that we know the facts, and can take actions that accurately address those facts.

The Letter to ProMED:

Here’s an excerpt from Dr. Redig's letter to ProMED:

“Our organization, The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, has been documenting and treating clinical cases of lead poisoning in eagles since the mid-1970s. Of the 120 or so eagles admitted every year for a wide variety of causes from 1974 to the present, some 25 to 30 were presented annually for acute lead poisoning; most of these eagles are beyond treatment and were euthanized.”

“In addition, every eagle admitted, regardless of cause, is tested for lead, and over 90 percent have elevated lead residues in their blood during the hunting seasons. Clearly, eagles are exposed to a significant amount of lead.”

“Extensive epidemiological monitoring and clinical evaluation (blood lead levels, radiographs, necropsies) of this phenomenon show that the source of lead is spent ammunition, especially fragments from high velocity rifle bullets and, to a lesser degree, shotgun slug fragments, buried in white-tailed deer residues, gutpiles, and un-recovered carcasses.”

Meanwhile, environmental groups have presented a second petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a ban on lead fishing tackle, even though the agency rejected the first one last year. Concurrently, some of these groups have filed suit, challenging dismissal of that first petition.

Go to Keep America Fishing to learn more about this issue, as well as the Hunting, Fishing, and Recreational Shooting Sports Protection Act. We need passage of this legislation to ensure that regulations related to fishing tackle are based on fact, not fiction. Also, send a message telling the EPA that you oppose the proposed ban, as well as, encouraging your representatives in Congress to support the act.

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