Lead Shot finally outlawed in France, well almost.

[chris pp]

From the 1st June 2006 the use of lead shot will be illegal in France but sadly only in wetland and lake situations, substitute shot made from steel and bismuth will be used instead. It would be much better if this was extended to all shot used in France but it has to be seen as a step in the right direction, only 16 years behind the UK and 6 years after the final date that had been agreed by France.

In an area such as Carmargue there can be as much as 2 million pieces of shot per hectare, that's a lot of lead.

One more tiny step forward, Chris

 

 

[Deimos]

I find it quite surprising the amount of fishing gear that “escapes” its owners.  Living in a water mill, the mill pond has eddies where floating debris becomes “trapped”.  I think I should open a fishing shop.  I actually don’t allow fishermen on the upstream side of the mill channel (actually not on any of my land and thus not the downstream side either) – so the bulk of the fishing is on the river 500m away (from which I will not receive their discarded gear).

 

However, one thing that surprises me (and is a relief) is that whilst I get loads of fishing floats, they do not tend to have line/hooks attached (though maybe that is bad as they probably did when the gear made its escape.

 

Ian

[chris pp]

Oooop's,  I should have said for shotguns, don't know what the situation is for fishing, I'll have to check that out as it's equally as serious. I think that was changed in the UK back in the 80's, but this is La Belle France.

Chris

[Deimos]

Shows how ignorant I am about “field sports”.  Reason I assumed it was fishing weights was due to the issues that were publicised quite a few years ago with some wild fowl (in the UK) suffering lead poisoning.  That together with fishing being the most popular participant sport (in the UK anyway) struck me that the cumulative effect could be significant.

 

Chris, had I read your post a bit more carefully I would have registered the 2 million pieces and would probably not have assumed fishing !!

 

Ian

[Dick Smith]

We've seen a few waterfowl with legs tangled in fishing line, some even lose feet. Apparently anglers just cut away tangled lines and the birds get caught in them. A sad effect that changing the metal of the wights won't help, unfortunately.

[sharkhunter]

Hi Dick, apparently not all anglers, there are a few of us who do act responsibly, i dont take comments like this to heart because there are anglers who do discriminately throw away line without care.But as always, there are exceptions to the rule.

On other subjects, there are still tackle shops that sell lead weights for game, sea and coarse angling, rightly or wrongly you can still buy shotgun cartridges with lead in them, all in the UK. Either they have massive stocks or they are still making them???

No malice intended, Hugh.

[Dick Smith]

I wasn't meaning to impugn all anglers. I think we get a lot of kids (on the Wandle) and they don't have the same depth of perception as older anglers. I've never fished, but it seems that some people get an almost transcendental pleasure out of a quiet, concentrated pastime so closely in touch with nature. I can't understand throwing the fish back, though, at least if they are big enough to eat!

We also get kids who kill swans and break up swan and goose nests. How can anyone want to kill a swan? It really beats me, that one.