Today's post is a sidebar to my book Marsh Fen and Town, South Lincolnshire and Beyond - in this case a consideration of the ethics of wildfowling by Peter Scott.
In his biography Eye of the Wind Peter Scott describes the long suffering death of a goose he shot that landed on mud flats that he was unable to retrieve that turned him away from the sport of Wildfowling:
"It was inescapable to me that, had I never been interested in wildfowling, my enjoyment, and also my knowledge of the birds, would have been much less. Was there not a balance here? Perhaps so long as a man is deriving so much good as to offset the bad, the balance might still fall in favour of the wildfowler."
.........."It can be argued that the final decisions should be made in the conscience of the individual."
In my opinion the foreshore wildfowler is alongside the deer stalker as the last true hunter in the shooting sports of the UK. Both require intimate knowledge of their quarry and environment.
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