New Program to Address Lead Fishing Tackle: Tackle Box Ambassadors
Words & Images by Denise Silfee, ACLC Director of Education and Communications
One of ACLC’s new lead programs will train volunteers to help anglers do a tackle box inventory to identify and replace lead fishing gear.
Lead poisoning from ingesting lead fishing tackle is a leading cause of death for common loons everywhere.
In the Adirondacks, the trend continues: In 2024, lead poisoning was a leading cause of death for loons recovered and examined by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Wildlife Health Unit Lab. Trauma was the only other cause of death that was similar to lead poisoning, and is a category that includes both natural trauma (from loons fighting other loons, for example) and human-caused trauma from boat strikes.
Preventing the deaths of loons and other wildlife from lead poisoning is a priority for the Adirondack Center for Loon Conservation (ACLC) and is the motivation for diversifying approaches to educating the public about the dangers of lead to wildlife.
Since 2021, ACLC has sponsored the Lead Tackle Buy Back Program, encouraging anglers to turn their lead tackle in at participating tackle shops in exchange for a $10 voucher to purchase lead-free alternatives. While that program has seen some success, lead tackle over a half-ounce remains legal to buy and use in New York State. Researchers estimate that about 4,400 tons of lead fish gear is lost in the environment each year. The best way to reduce the amount of lead tackle lost in our waterways is to reduce the amount being used.
Causes of mortality for loons recovered in the Adirondacks in 2024.
One new initiative to address the use of lead fishing tackle is ACLC’s new Tackle Box Ambassador program, piloted this summer by ACLC Wildlife Technician Leah Boget and ACLC Board member Eric Potter.
The goal of the new program is to train volunteer ambassadors to use personal relationships with neighbors, friends and individuals living in their communities to teach people about the dangers of lead tackle for wildlife and help them make the switch to lead-free tackle.
“It’s too easy to ignore posters, emails and snail mailings [about the dangers of lead for wildlife],” said Potter. “I thought there must be a better way, at least on the friends and family scale.”
The crucial idea behind the Tackle Box Ambassador approach is that a one-on-one conversation with someone who lives in your own community can help the message resonate. Tackle Box Ambassadors will offer to do a tackle box inventory with interested anglers, and be trained to identify lead tackle, collect the tackle and give anglers sample packs of lead-free tackle along with a $10 voucher to redeem for more lead-free tackle.
ACLC Wildlife Technician Leah Boget begins looking for lead fishing gear in a neighbor’s tackle boxes.
ACLC Board member Eric Potter talks to one of his Brandreth Lake neighbors about how lead fishing tackle harms loons and other wildlife.
Boget tagged along with Potter this past July as he traveled around his community in Brandreth Lake, NY, meeting with family members and neighbors to do tackle box inventories. Potter offered this service to neighbors in the days leading up to the visits and set up times to stop by.
At one visit, a neighbor’s dining room table was covered in multiple tackle boxes spanning generations of anglers. For many folks, tackle boxes and tackle have been handed down to them, so the origins of the tackle and the materials it is made of are often unknown.
As Potter and Boget got to work sifting through the tackle box, they chatted with the neighbor about interesting pieces they found and explained how they determined which items were made of lead.
ACLC Board member Eric Potter holds examples of sinkers in his hand: the three dull-looking sinkers are lead, the three shiny sinkers are a lead alternative metal.
“An easy way to tell if something is lead is to try to dent it with your fingernail,” Boget said. “Lead is soft and is often malleable with your fingers alone. You can also drag it across a piece of paper and if it has a high lead content, it will leave a silver trail.”
Lead also has a dull luster in appearance, rather than a shine, like alternative metals like tin and tungsten.
Jig head hooks, even painted ones, are a primary source of lead poisoning in loons.
Then there is the feel of lead in your hand. Lead’s density is what makes it a popular choice for fishing tackle, and its weight has a “special feel” to someone like Potter who has been an angler for 70 years, since he was five years old.
Even without having that special feel for the weight of lead, volunteers can be trained in knowing what items likely contain lead. And if the tackle still has its packaging, there is an even easier rule to follow: Unless it says “lead-free,” assume it contains lead.
The conversations with the neighbors Potter and Boget visited were a mix of storytelling and education: anglers talked about fishing trips past and present, marveled at antique tackle pieces dug out of the bottom of older boxes, and expressed surprise at pieces that they owned but never used.
One neighbor remarked, “If you had told me to expect this much lead in my kit, I wouldn’t have believed you.” Having someone there to talk him through the process and show him the indicators of lead made a difference.
One piece of tackle that anglers are often surprised to learn is a primary source of lead poisoning for loons is a jig head hook, which has a weight soldered to the top of the hook. Even if the jig is painted, the lead it contains will still break down in a bird’s powerful gizzard and poison the animal, causing a slow, painful death in two to four weeks. Loons ingest jig head hooks when they swallow fish that still have tackle attached, either because they broke the line or are taken off the line as an angler reels them in.
ACLC Wildlife Technician Leah Boget, left, and ACLC Board member Eric Potter, second from left, help some of Potter’s neighbors look for lead fishing gear in the neighbors’ tackle boxes.
“As anglers, we already have a special appreciation for wildlife,” Potter said. “Anglers in some ways are uniquely qualified to understand the connections that sustain wildlife of all kinds. We know now that we are using sinkers and jigs that are potentially lethal to a variety of animals. Making a small voluntary change can have a big impact.”
ACLC plans to recruit volunteers to be trained as Tackle Box Ambassadors for their communities in spring 2026. Each ambassador will be supplied with educational materials, lead-free tackle alternatives and vouchers. They will also be guided in ways to connect with their local communities. They could simply talk to neighbors and friends to offer a tackle box inventory, or they could hold small local events at nearby tackle shops, tabling events or community gathering places. Posting in a private Facebook group or on an app like NextDoor are great ways to connect with people. And once that one-on-one connection is made, those individuals can in turn also help spread the word.
Bags of lead tackle collected during a day of tackle box inventories in Brandreth Lake during the pilot season of the Tackle Box Ambassador Program.
“Wildlife deaths from lead poisoning are 100 percent preventable,” said Boget. “And I really believe most people want to help take care of wildlife, they might just not realize the dangers.”
For Potter, “The research that identifies the hazards of lead sinkers and jigs to wildlife was like a big warning sign. All we have to do is heed the danger and change a little of what we are accustomed to doing” to have an impact.
Look for more information about how to volunteer as a Tackle Box Ambassador, as well as updated information about tackle shops that will still collect lead and redeem vouchers, in spring 2026.