Soft Plastics - Serious Environmental Damage

Just like hard bodied lures, lost or discarded soft-plastic baits pose a significant risk to fragile ecosystems. Field observations and research studies have determined that soft plastics accumulate as a form of underwater litter, though in many waters they appear as a small particle contaminant when compared with cigarette butts, bottle caps, PCBs, or mercury. Researchers and environmental groups are concerned that these long-lived soft plastic pieces contribute to “microplastic loads”, as they fragment, and contaminate sediment quality and benthic organisms (clams, snails, mussels, etc). Because soft plastics can persist for decades or even longer, every lost lure or soft bait effectively adds to a slowly growing reservoir of plastic in aquatic systems.  

Chemical Leaching from Plastics - Long Term Chemical Impact to Our Fragile Ecosystem:

Plastic fishing lures and particularly flexible soft baits, pose a significant long-term environmental threat. Their ability to remain in the environment for decades is well established. As they slowly degrade, they leach extremely harmful chemicals (phthalates and other additives) into the environment. This has become a deeply concerning problem facing the angling community and environmental groups. 

Phthalates are synthetic chemicals used to make plastics flexible. Because they’re not tightly bound, they easily migrate out of products into water, food, and during skin contact, which is why people have measurable levels of phthalates in their urine.

Phthalates act as endocrine disruptors and interfere with hormone production, signaling, and metabolism in the body. Studies link phthalates to reduced fertility, altered reproductive development, metabolic abnormalities, certain cancers, and neuro-developmental and behavioral effects in children.

Phthalates are used heavily as plasticizers in soft plastic fishing lures where leaching into surrounding water is a serious concern for fish and ecosystem health. Fish absorb these leached chemicals through their gills, skin, or by eating tiny contaminated particles, or by consuming prey that has already eaten plastic particles. 

These highly toxic chemicals disrupt metabolic cycles that directly influence all biological functions in fish including:

—sexual development

—locomotion (swimming)

—immune function 

—estrogenic activity

—feeding/growth

—reproductive biology 

Laboratory analyses of common soft-plastic baits show these chemicals result in reduced spawning, defective eggs and sperm quality, and fewer healthy fish surviving into the next generation. Older commentary has also noted that materials related to soft baits (particularly PVC-based baits), involve hazardous chemicals such as dioxins, (along with phthalates), which are associated with cancer and developmental effects, which poses a direct risk to anglers. In practice, contamination from soft plastic baits means fish produce fewer eggs, have lowered fertility, reduced viability of embryos, and weaker reproductive behavior that can devastate an entire species.

Some common endocrine disrupting chemicals used in soft plastic lures are described here:

Diethyl phthalate (DEP). A plasticizer that can leach out of soft baits.

Di-n-butyl phthalate (DBP). A known endocrine-disrupting plasticizer found in some soft plastics.

Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP).  A widely used PVC plasticizer identified in soft lures.

Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP). Another phthalate reported in soft plastic baits.