Shawn responded to Budd and sez:

You're right about my point. The fact that many of these trout had
multiple
plastics in their stomach tells me they either aren't passing them at all,
or are passing them very slowly with much difficultly. So, in the
meantime,
while they're working on getting them out, there's not much room for
actual
food and nutrition. Obviously this isn't going to happen with every fish
whether it's a bass or trout or something else that swallows a soft
plastic
bait. Most likely only eat one or so and that leaves room for other good
food while they work on passing the plastic. Fish do eat a number of
nasty
things that can't be digested well such as crayfish claws, pine cones,
snail
shells etc etc, but they are eventually passed. So a trout eating ONE or
maybe TWO plastic worms might not be a big deal. A trout that finds the
motherload, or develops a taste for garlic and salt (;-) could be in
trouble
in terms of packing it's stomach with undigestable stuff, leaving no room
for actual food.

Again this information does not answer whether all this is a problem, a big
problem, a trout only problem, a Vermont problem. No dead fish were
observed. No skinny or deformed fish were observed. No necropsies were
cited to show that the plastics harmed the trout.

All of this notwitstanding, something IS going on. You and Vermont F&G need
to get answers to these questions quickly and accurately before the national
press, newspapers and hype media start stroking the facts. PETA loonies
could blow this information all out of proportion. Imagine how would they
show your 10 stomach samples on TV to the kids? California will surely use
this information to try to tax or prohibit sales of plastics. Soft stomach
plastics could make lead shot in shotgun shells small in comparison!

Regardless of all the "what if's", I still think it's something anglers
need
to be conscious of, and take care not to just haphazardly throw used soft
plastics into lakes.

You missed my point. It was we have some research to do. Soft stomach
plastics could be a BIG deal if it is happening everywhere. Of course I'm
not in favor of anglers throwing used plastics into lakes - haphazardly or
any other way. But telling them NOT to do it won't solve the problem. I
hope you are not planning on some "Let's not throw plastics in the lakes"
public relations announcement without research. That could be a huge Public
Relations nightmare for all of us!!!

I sure hope you get some answers quickly. Good luck!
John