Fishing tackle is targeted, too, in campaign to protect loons and other wildlife

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WB Staff
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Fishing tackle is targeted, too, in campaign to protect loons and other wildlife

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Fishing tackle is targeted, too, in campaign to protect loons and other wildlife

With mounting evidence of damage to loons, eagles and other wildlife, environmental groups are asking the state to try again to outlaw or limit the use of lead in fishing gear, birdshot and rifle bullets.

Their petition, filed last month with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, would require hunters to use steel, copper or other nontoxic ammunition during all hunting seasons throughout the state. It also asks the DNR to ban lead jigs and fishing tackle from lakes that have nesting loons.

Lead jigs and sinkers can poison loons when the birds scoop them up on lake bottoms while they are searching for pebbles to help them digest their food. Eagles can be poisoned when they eat “gut piles” left by hunters who shoot deer with lead shot and then dress them in the wild.

Read more at the Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-is ... 562293012/
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