Catch supper from our sea shores

There's nothing to stop you helping yourself to a few shrimp or mussels

We are lucky in Lancashire to live along a fruitful coastline, and providing you know what you're looking for, there's plenty of food to find by the sea...

Lancashire Sea Fisheries Officer Steven Brown is a man who could feed himself quite happily by gathering food from the sea and coastline of Lancashire.

It's Steven's job to look after the local coastline, "I'm a policeman in wellies. We police the inshore fishery, looking after the inter-tidal fishery and the small boat fishery out to the six mile limit."

Safety is important after the Morecambe Bay cockle pickers tragedy, but conservation is also a major point, with the cockle beds currently closed for the breeding season.

But mussels and shrimps can be caught with a push net - a long handle, with a large, thin hoop with a net attached to the top. Steven explains: "You wade in a couple of feet of water with the handle on your tummy and push it along till you think you've got something and then you use a shrimp riddle." A shrimp riddle is basically a giant sieve that allows the smaller shrimp to fall through back to the sea.

But you can also find the odd treat, "I've had the occasional sole and turbet as they come very close in shore in the spring season."

It's a popular past-time, "We get people coming along, particularly further south towards the Wirral, collecting clams at low water." But Steven is keen to emphasize safety, "Experience is definitely necessary, but given a few common sense rules, there's nothing to stop you helping yourself to a few shrimp or mussels."

What you can find in the sea, changes over time as Steven explains: "Certainly there are major changes on our coastline, some say down to climate change, more obviously it's due to sand deposits moving around. Shell fish beds move quite considerably and fish patterns change over the years, as species become more dominant."

After an hour foraging in Morecambe Bay, Steven has a selection of mussels and shrimps - "It's finest local produce," he says.

Safety tips

If you're interested in investigating our coastline, you are strongly advised to check out the Health and Safety Executive's safety guidelines.