Bid to reduce cockling in estuary

The estuary could reopen for cockling in the autumn

A public consultation on the future of cockling in the Dee estuary will begin on Friday, environment officials have announced.

The Environment Agency Wales has applied to the Welsh assembly and the UK government for more controls to regulate the industry.

The agency said it wanted to ensure a "profitable and sustainable future" for the estuary.

The Dee cockle beds in north Wales have been closed for more than two years.

The month-long consultation will consider a number of the Environment Agency's proposals.

We look forward to working with fishermen to ensure a profitable and sustainable future for the estuary Alan Winstone, Environment Agency

These include a lengthening of the "close season" - when cocklers are not allowed to farm the beds - and an allocation of just 50 licences to people who can prove a history of cockling in the estuary.

Other planned regulations are a new licence fee of £992, cold weather opening restrictions and daily quotas.

Brian Jones, of the Environment Agency, said essentially it wanted to reduce the number of cocklers and shorten the season.

He said if the consultation was completed with no major objections, then the Welsh rural affairs minister could approve a reopening of the Dee estuary for cockling by the autumn.

Alan Winstone, the agency's environment manager for the north Wales coast said: "A regulating order is long overdue for the Dee estuary and we look forward to working with fishermen to ensure a profitable and sustainable future for the estuary."

'Volatile fishery'

The agency estimates the fishery can support a total annual catch of between 500 and 2,500 tonnes - which would generate an average gross income of between £250,000 and £1.25m a year.

The Dee is one of five major cockle fisheries in the UK. Current byelaws, introduced in 1995, do not enable the agency to restrict the number of fishermen, or to recover the costs of regulating the fishery.

The agency claims that the absence of adequate controls has resulted in a "highly volatile fishery" involving large numbers of "inexperienced casual labourers".

Large numbers of fishermen can damage the protected features of the estuary through trampling and disturbance, the agency said.