The more I read this type of thread, the more I realise how complex they really are....your feelings are constantly being tugged first one way then the other as you read and then try to weigh up other peoples thoughts on the issues involved.
For instance, I am closer to carp fishing than Chris, as I have only recently swapped camps, close enough in fact to feel a jolt of horror at the very prospect of bowfishing for them. And I would like to think I would feel that way about doing such a thing to any creature....but then I think back to my childhood and teen years, with catapult, airgun and shotgun...and I have to admit that such a hope would be a total hypocrisy, if I am brutally honest
...and that worries me.
However, the most worrying thing for me about such threads is that they forcibly remind me just how fragile and probably indefensible our position as anglers really is. Certainly in this particular thread, the more I mull it over, the more difficult I find it to claim the moral high ground over bowfishermen....and that hurts a little...or quite a lot actually
Another slight worry....or perhaps I should say something that always seems a little dubious to me when it pops up (as it invariably does) in such discussions, is the old cliche which claims that 'If you don't do it, someone else will' is justification to do whatever. I dread to think what horrors that one has unleashed in the past
Anyway...Chris asked what we would have done personally, were we in his situation. Well, try as I might, I for one can find no sensible or genuine moral reason not to accept the commision, for the reasons I have already mentioned....and a lot of logical reasons to grab it with both hands, in this financial climate
Cheers, Dave.