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Alternative to Lead for fishing Sinkers

I am a high school student working on a science project. I am trying to come up with an alternative to lead sinkers to keep lead out of the Kenai River. If anyone could give me any information on plating steel or cast iron with copper I would be very greatful.

Thank you,

Eric
- Soldotna, AK, USA
2003

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First of two simultaneous responses --

Eric,

Think about what you are asking. Look up copper as an algaecide. Copper is very effective in killing aquatic vegetation, so you are really just switching from one poison to an environmental poison. You will probably die of old age before you could get enough lead to dissolve from a sinker to kill or injure a person. The sinker would have to be ground up into a very fine powder to have enough surface area to dissolve enough to harm anything in a lifetime. Look up the solubility of lead in plain water. Just remember that figures do not lie, but liars do figure. Take many things in life with a huge grain of salt.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
2003

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Second of two simultaneous responses --

Better might be pure tin. I just read an article about this substitution being practiced in Great Britain. Tin is one metal that is considered completely non toxic. It was in the journal of the International Tin Research Institute. Maybe someone there can help you.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2003

Stay with the lead or use a galvanized steel washer. Many people use solder but it can have many toxic elements depending upon the alloys used to make the product. I had a tin roof on a 100 year old house. The roof had been repaired using lead & it hadn't oxidized in the 13 years I lived there.

David Kiehl
- Wichita, Kansas
2003

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Doing research on long term effect of uncoated lead sinkers (2 to 3 lbs.) on crabs, fish and other vertabrae etc.

Robert P. Praetzel
Fish environmental researcher - Kentfield, Marin County, Calif.
2006

It's not that lead sinkers-- how many tens of thousands of them litter the bottom of the Kenai River, where "combat fishing" takes place?-- will directly harm humans... my concern is how it will effect the ecosystem: birds who eat them (see studies re. lead pellets & sinkers and bald eagles, ducks, etc), animals, seepage into foliage, etc etc. I always use tin sinkers.

Ken Hart
- Anchorage, Alaska
July 20, 2011