Surveillance camera to keep watch on Dee estuary cocklers

Sep 3 2008 by Carrie Catterall, Heswall News

COCKLE pickers returning to the Dee estuary this week will be watched by a surveillance camera with a three-mile range.

The Environment Agency Wales says it is the start of a “safe and sustainable multi-million pound cockling industry”.

The new system limits the legal number of licensed cockle pickers to 50.

Previously, up to 400 cockle pickers would harvest the Dee estuary under unsustainable and unsafe conditions.

The licences, costing £992 per year, have been allocated to those who could demonstrate they are commercial cockle pickers with a history of harvesting the estuary.

The camera will be used to beam images directly to Environment Agency offices and also to hand-held devices of patrolling officers to allow the agency to tackle any illegal cockle picking.

It will also be used to oversee the safety of licensed cockle pickers to help try to avoid a repeat of the Morecambe Bay tragedy where 23 Chinese cockle pickers died in 2004 after being trapped by rising tides.

It is estimated there are up to 9,000 tonnes of takeable cockles on the Dee estuary currently worth between £200 and £300 per tonne.

To keep cockle levels healthy, Environment Agency Wales is allowing around one third of the cockles to be picked by licensed cocklers, approximately 3,000 tonnes this year, leaving one third to feed the area’s important bird life and the remaining third to make sure the cockle crop regenerates for future years.

Wirral South MP Ben Chapman said: “I have campaigned on this issue for a long while now. It is good to see it come to fruition.”

No fishing is allowed at night or on Sundays.

Illegal cockle picking on Moreton Shore has been highlighted by the Wallasey News this week and the matter is being investigated.