Silke Jasso
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has repealed an Obama-era ban on lead ammunition and fishing tackle, enacted in the final days of the Obama Administration.
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Director’s Order 219, issued January 19, the day before Trump’s inauguration, would gradually ban lead ammunition and fishing tackle. As written, the order had the stated purpose to:
“Require the use of nontoxic ammunition and fishing tackle to the fullest extent practicable for all activities on Service lands, waters, and facilities by January 2022, except as needed for law enforcement or health and safety uses, as provided for in policy.”
The order cited harmful effects — namely toxicosis — to fish and wildlife in lead-poisoned environments, and said that lead sinkers and ammunition were a documented source of the poisonous metal. It says “ingestion of lead fishing sinkers and other fishing tackle have been documented in waterbirds” and that “ingested lead pellets from shotgun shells have been a common source of lead poisoning in birds.”
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The national ban cites state-level restrictions on lead tackle and ammunition as precedent for it, claiming that states that had enacted these bans had seen waterfowl populations “thrive” in the absence of lead-based tackle and ammunition.
In a single January press statement, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was quick to condemn the ban and urged swift confirmation of then-Rep. Ryan Zinke for Interior Secretary. The NRA called the ban a “unilateral action” taken “without scientific evidence to support it and without consulting state fish and wildlife agencies.” They also claim the ban would impose “considerable” financial hardship on hunters and anglers, saying the alternatives were more expensive.
