Petition plan after cockle deaths

Experts have been looking into the reason for the dead cockles

There are plans to petition the Welsh Assembly Government for a public inquiry after the death of thousands of tonnes of cockles in west Wales.

Groups from the fishing and river communities around Llanelli and Gower, met on Friday night to discuss working together to highlight the issue.

One theory is the problem is caused by pollution from a nearby sewage works.

But Welsh Water has said the cause was complex, involved several factors and warned against jumping to conclusions.

Ian McHugh, chairman of the Carmarthen River Festival, said the meeting included coracle fishermen and cocklers, and the petition would be gathered over the next month.

He said those worried about the problems from Carmarthen Bay and the Lougher estuary would be joining forced with those from the Llanelli area, who were already more advanced in working on the issue.

"It's going to give us a united front - instead of working individually, our concerns about marine conservation are intrinsically linked.

"We want to know what's causing the cockles to die and how much sewage is going into the estuary."

Welsh Water said it was working with the Environment Agency to address the issue.

One theory is that a mystery bug has killed 6,000 tonnes of cockles off Gower and threatens the future of the industry in the Burry Inlet.

But Welsh Water said there had been a £50m investment in the local sewage network and sewage treatment facilities which had brought "major improvements."

"During 2007 Llanelli wastewater treatment works spilled 111 times," a spokesman said.

'Usual suspects'

"A scheme to reduce the number of spills at Llanelli works and Northumberland Avenue pumping station has not yet been implemented but we are again working closely with Environment Agency Wales on this."

The spokesman said there had also been claims that sewage discharges in wet weather were to blame.

But he said the loss of 1,500 tonnes of cockles at Pwll over the May Day bank holiday happened when there had been no discharges from wastewater treatment works or pumping stations.

Scientists have been working with the fishing community to discover the reason for the mortality rates.

Cockler Neil Page on the cockle beds of the Burry Inlet near Llanelli

Earlier this week, Dr Ruth Callaway from the Swansea University said the cockle population was so weak it was unable to cope with the changes in the environment.

She said: "It's possible that the pollution in the water is weakening the immune system of the cockles, but pollution would most likely affect several species and not just the cockles."

"It would be nothing for a healthy cockle because they would not die from a freshwater input or an increase in temperature.

"It's not a shortage of food and we've looked into the usual suspects, but there is no clear lead on what the reason could be."

Mark Swistun, managing director of Penclawdd Shellfish Processing, said he believed super-spawning cockles were growing so fast, many were left too weak to survive and were then dying in massive numbers.

The dead cockle carcasses on the mud flats then rotted and infected the healthy cockles which had survived.

"The problem is that the juvenile cockles are so healthy they are spawning at a massive rate which weakens them," said Mr Swistun.

"That leaves a large majority not strong enough to survive."