Biodegradable instead of lead and plastic
This is food for thought for all you plug makers. Could it work?
Cape Cod lure maker, Ron-Z goes biodegradable
1:01 AM Thu, Jan 14, 2010 |
By Tom Meade
Ron Poirier, pictured at right, the Cape Cod manufacturer of RON-Z Lures , says he plans to make lures with tin heads and biodegradable bodies instead of lead heads and plastic bodies.
He also is developing a plan to take used plastic bodies and convert them into new lures.
Poirier believes that it's only a matter of time before regulators ban lead and non-biodegradable plastic from fishing waters.
In Maine, the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) is strongly encouraging anglers to switch from soft plastic lures to biodegradable ones.
Maine fisheries biologists are reporting increasing numbers of angled trout and salmon with indigestible soft plastic lures in their stomachs, according to John Boland, IF&W Fisheries Division Director. A discarded soft plastic lure consumed innocently by a brook trout from the bottom of a freshwater shoal likely remains in that fish's stomach for the rest of its life and may cause health issues such as ulcers and weight loss.
Soft plastic lures are most commonly used by bass anglers, often in waters shared with trout and salmon. IF&W is cooperating in studies on the effects of soft plastic lure ingestion by trout and salmon, including one recent experiment at Unity College, which was conducted by IF&W Pathologist Dr. Russ Danner, Unity College Professor Jim Chacko, PhD., and IF&W Fisheries Biologist Francis Brautigam, and in another study currently underway at Southern Maine Community College.
The study conducted at Unity College found that 65 percent of brook trout voluntarily consumed soft plastic lures if they simply were dropped into water.
"We found that fish retained the lures in their stomachs for 13 weeks without regurgitating them," said Danner. "They also began to act anorexic and lost weight within 90 days of eating a soft plastic lure."
Without regard to the chemical toxicity of ingested soft plastics, the fact that these lures are occupying space in a trout's stomach limits the amount of space available for natural food. There is a lot of veterinary medical evidence that foreign bodies in the digestive tract cause ulcers, weight loss, and anorexia.
"We strongly encourage anglers to voluntarily purchase biodegradable and food-based lures rather than soft plastic ones," Dr. Danner said. "Also, we are asking anglers not to discard plastic lures into any waters, and also to attempt to retrieve any soft plastic lures that have become unhooked".
There are estimates that as much as 20 million pounds of soft plastic are being lost in freshwater lakes and streams annually in the U.S. The average life expectancy for soft plastic lures is more than 200 years.
