ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS COMING WITH ANGLING: LEAD SINKERS

1. B E Y Z A B A Y R A M Ç A V U Ş – B U R A K
İ L H A N
D U Y G U Y A V U Z
H A L K A L I O K Y A N U S H I G H S C H O O L
I S T A N B U L - T U R K E Y
ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS
COMING WITH ANGLING:
LEAD SINKERS

2.  Even in Istanbul thousands of people are angling
along the coasts of Bosphorus and Marmara Sea.
 Great amount of lead sinkers has been left to
the sea by these amateur while angling.
 Sadly, the lead sinkers left to the habitat pollute
our seas beyond imagination.

3. A typical day of anglers on Galata Bridge...

4. OBJECTIVES
 Attract attention to the environment pollution
imposed with lead, heavy metal, used in fishing and
propose solutions for the problems coming with the
use of lead sinkers.

5. While conducting our project, we collated our
study in three chapters:
What is GHOST FISHING?
What is LEAD SINKERS?
What are the ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
COMING WITH LEAD SINKERS?

6. GHOST FISHING
Ghosts nets are commercial materials abandoned or discarded by ships
in the seas and continue its function in trapping sea creatures.
For example; the fishing nets snagged in the reefs are considered
going on fishing when they are unattended.
How?
The materials used in fishing gears are long-wearing. So it takes much
time for disintegration and disposition of these materials. Leaden
materials used as sinker could be considered in this context. The
impacts of these materials on environment: to continue hunting; to
continue hunt the species of fish and other sea creatures despite not
being targeted; to kill other sea animals (seals, turtles and sea birds); to
have effects on sea fauna, flora and benthic algae.
...

8. WHAT ARE LEAD SINKERS? WHY
ARE THEY USED?
Lead sinkers have been used to make fishing hooks go
down deep and keep them stay in a certain dept or
cruise them along previously arranged depts. People
have used different materials for this purpose. Today
lead, mostly, is used as sinker across the world.
Because:
specific gravity of lead makes it sink easily in
water.
Lead is the cheapest commodity to be used for
this purpose.

9. DANGERS IMPOSED WITH
LEAD,HIGHLY TOXIC HEAVY
METAL.
 When exposed to lead, it causes
 anemia,
 stomach ache,
 kidney and brain infections,
 infertility,
 cancer and mortality,
 cognitive and behavioral disorders in children,
 acute Obesity .
Due to fact that its half-life is 20 years, it is not possible to
remove the lead out of body!!!

10. METHODOLOGY
In order to use in our experiments;
 We bought lead sinkers in different weights (1g –
80 g range) and shapes.

11. Sea-water solution which contains 30% salt has been
prepared, using distilled water and sea water.

12. THE PURPOSE OF OUR
EXPERIMENT
We have tried to find out the answers to the
following questions:
How long does the dissolution of lead take in sea-
water and in which ratio? Which methods could be
used to slow down this process?
We conducted our experiments in the laboratories of
BARGEM and Chemistry Department of ITU
(Istanbul Polytechnic University)

13. 1. The sea-water solutions prepared previously are
poured into the beakers and equal amount of lead
is put in these solutions. Then, they are placed on
the shaker.

14. 2. We coated the samples of sinkers with small
grain sand and dropped them in sea water.
 Our purpose is to prevent sea-water from
contacting with lead thanks to sand coating and
to help sea habitat restore itself.

15. 3. Sinkers were coated with iron powder and
dropped into sea-water.
Our aim is to stop lead contamination in sea,
coating lead sinkers with iron powder and collect
with magnets the sinkers left to water sources
during angling and commercial fishing..

16. CONCLUSION
 We kept waiting our experiment groups in which
there are different lead samples for 15 days and
took samples for analyses every 3 days.

17.  All the analyses have been conducted with atomic
absorption spectrometer in the laboratories of
Chemistry Department of ITU( Istanbul
Polytechnic University).

18. Lead contamination levels in sea
water after 15-day period
Sample Groups Lead amounts in sea-water
(After 15 days)
Sea-water with normal lead amount 3,829 mg/lt
Sea-water with the lead sinker coated
with sand grain
0,131 mg/lt
The sea-water with lead sinker coated
with iron powder
0,036 mg/lt
*** The least value of lead contamination has occurred in sea-water with lead
sinker coated with iron powder

19. IN CONCLUSION
 Now that lead will be used in this industry
because of its relative low cost and abundance. If
so, we can make it harmless by coating it with
sand grains. Or thanks to the other coating
technic with iron powder , we can not only stop
contamination of our water sources, but also
recover this commodity by using magnets.
 In many countries, the use of lead sinkers have
been prohibited. Instead, new legislations which
allow the use of bismuth and tungsten have been
introduced.

20.  Water sources such as sea, lake, river and
aquatic environments make up ¾ of the Earth. If
we want to protect our environment, we should
do our best to preserve the healthy pattern of this
¾ part. Otherwise, sea pollution will permeate
into air and soil.

21.  Our proposition is to use the lead sinkers coated
with sands and iron powders in fishing. In
addition, we consider it is a must to introduce
new legislation which is to make obligatory the
use of coated lead fishing tackles in hunting.

22. THANK YOU