[zimmy]

Originally Posted by PRBuzz

"

Although fish ingest sinkers, jigs, and hooks, mortality in fish seems to be related to injury, blood loss, exposure to air and exhaustion rather than the lead toxicity that affects warm-blooded species."

USGS Release: Lead Shot and Sinkers: Weighty Implications for Fish and Wildlife Health (7/11/2008 11:29:09 AM)

I read the technical report so I could see what precipitated the above statement. http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/loon...eview_lead.pdf

Two things:

The studies in the technical report do not indicate that lead is non-toxic in fish. Studies of fish mortality have found injuries from catching and handling do kill fish. That is not the same as lead does not kill fish. The above statement implies that cold-blooded organisms are not affected by lead like warm blooded, but I can't find anything implicit in the report to support that, though I may have missed it.

The report lists many studies that show that ingested lead accumulates in the organs and tissues of fish that have ingested it and that there are morphological changes associated with it.