MOST seaplanes have piston engines that use 100LL AvGas, which is a gasoline with lead in it (the LL stands for "low lead" as opposed to "unleaded" in car gas).

MOST seaplanes have piston engines that use 100LL AvGas, which is a gasoline with lead in it (the LL stands for "low lead" as opposed to "unleaded" in car gas). The lead keeps airplane engines, especially older ones from knocking. These planes are DHC-2 DeHaviland Beavers, which traditionally do have radial engines that would require leaded gas. So there is some significance to the rumors. BUT... Harbour Air (the airline featured in this article) is a large seaplane airline that have converted all their Beavers to Turbo-Beavers, so they use Turbo-prop engines, which is essentially a jet engine with a propeller on the shaft instead of a fan (turbo-fan is what most commercial jetliners use, these are essentially the same type of engine but using a propeller to convert engine revolutions into propulsion as opposed to a fan). So in this case, Harbour Air's beavers actually use Jetfuel which does NOT have lead in it.