AUGUSTA – Litter on the ground, underwater and even in fish bellies is fast becoming a big problem across the state.

It’s also a health hazard, may diminish angler catch rates associated with seasonal fisheries, and could spawn legislation. It could also prompt a nationwide effort by fake bait makers to manufacture inexpensive biodegradable lures.

“If anglers demand it, the market will respond,” Scott Davis, a fisheries biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in Sidney, stated recently in a report.

Litter problems at boat sites usually involve discarded plastic worm containers, sandwich bags and budget-beer cans, according to MDIF&W public relations representative Bill Pierce in Augusta.

“A lot of anglers do try to police their brethren. It’s better than it’s been in the past, but I still see worm containers and beer cans around access points on a regular basis,” he said by phone on Friday.

Whether it’s being dumped on the ground or washing ashore from boat anglers, he couldn’t say.

“It’s sad that worm containers, sandwich bags and beer cans are still being tossed. There’s been no slowdown in worm containers. It’s amazing, because every worm container has a ‘Please Don’t Litter’ message on them, which is a little ironic,” Pierce said.

Like Pierce, Maine Guide Rocky Freda of Bethel and MDIF&W spokesman Mark Latti said they’ve both seen and picked up trash left behind by some anglers.

Freda said Thursday afternoon that he collects about one or two trash bags of litter a week at boat-launch sites along the Androscoggin River. He also gives a litter bag to each client who takes a boat out on waters.

“I always see worm containers or cigarette butts, or beer bottles and beer cans. It’s an unfortunate truth,” Latti said Friday afternoon by phone in Augusta.

Soft plastic

Regarding soft plastic baits, Pierce, Latti and Davis referred to a newly completed draft study by MDIF&W fish pathologist Russell Danner in Augusta.

“Plastic baits are very effective and consistently used in bass waters, but they’re causing problems in salmonids,” Pierce said of salmon and trout species.

Danner’s work revealed that brook trout that eat soft plastic lures suffer significant weight loss, substantial decreases in body condition factors, and tend to stop eating.

“The composition of the plastics makes them a dangerous pollutant to the environment,” Danner said. “Plastics get their resiliency and flexibility from plasticizers, which include phthalates, chemicals known to cause several health problems.”

Among these, are, tumors and reproductive problems in rats from prolonged chronic exposure and chemical imbalances in several tissues and organs including the liver. These chemicals also contribute to the global decline of amphibians and affect human reproductive health, the study states.

Not only are trout and salmon getting fake bait off lines, being foragers that will eat just about anything, they’re also eating discarded baits found off the bottom of water bodies.

“Most plastic baits swell and absorb water over time, making them much more difficult to pass through the fish’s digestive system,” Davis said.

In 2003, 25 percent of the stomachs of 56 lake trout harvested by winter anglers on Sebago Lake in Naples contained soft plastic lures, according to state officials.

According to fisheries biologist Francis Brautigam in Gray, one 5-pound lake trout harvested on Mousam Lake in Acton during the winter of 2002 contained 18 soft plastic lures or parts thereof.

“The complaint that most anglers have, is, that it is very displeasing to find soft plastic bait in any fish that they are about to eat,” Davis said.

While legitimate complaints have been raised about the use of soft plastic baits, Davis doesn’t believe evidence to date suggests that plastic baits should be banned.

Instead, anglers should adjust their fishing practices to minimize the amount of soft plastic left behind, he said.

“I think anglers, by and large, are conscious about the environment and I think if they are given something that disintegrates and is of equal price, they’ll use it. But if the government mandates it, it will happen,” Pierce added.