Regarding the condor controversy, the actual reports done by the field biologists stated that the amounts of lead found in condor carcasses could very well have come from the existing traces of lead in the environment. You are correct, axes to grind, a political objective, translate the facts into polito-speak.
Likewise waterfowl, the "studies" done many decades before the lead bans did not find lead in dead waterfowl, and this was explained by rationalizing that the waterfowl supposedly poisoned decomposed too rapidly in marsh environments or were scavenged.
I left California a long time ago and do not have a dog in this fight other than what happens there often is carried to other states via the feds.
I've never cast with bismuth but that could be a solution.
Likewise waterfowl, the "studies" done many decades before the lead bans did not find lead in dead waterfowl, and this was explained by rationalizing that the waterfowl supposedly poisoned decomposed too rapidly in marsh environments or were scavenged.
I left California a long time ago and do not have a dog in this fight other than what happens there often is carried to other states via the feds.
I've never cast with bismuth but that could be a solution.