Fears over future of Wirral cockle beds

Jun 8 2009 Liverpool Daily Post

He said votes among the licence holders had been overwhelmingly in favour of a daily quota with only those from outside the area voting against it.

The fisherman said a daily quota would effectively be self enforcing because other fishermen would easily see if someone brought in more than they were allowed on a single day, and added: “All the Environment Agency has to say is just land 600-800kg a day – and we’ll have cockle beds here next year and the year after.

“They don’t even have to do anything, because the other fisherman will effectively be acting as bailiffs for them, keeping an eye on what the others are up to.”

But the Environment Agency has now told them that despite this they would instead just be given a Total Allowable Catch for the year, to be caught as and when they want during the season.

A spokesman said: “The Agency did consider introducing a daily quota and some fishermen supported this as a way of preventing fishermen taking large quantities of cockles in a day.

“However, we decided that the annual quota, was a much more flexible and easier way to manage the harvest which worked well last year.’’