Groups of men Ribble Estuary Cockling at the opening of the Beach at Southport to Cockle Pickers at the start of the season, Marshside, Merseyside, 2011. The Ribble Estuary is where the River Ribble, meets the Irish Sea on the North West Coast of England. Cocklers collecting edible, marine bivalve mollusc risk their lives on British shores but can earn up to £1,000 a day. The cockle beds here have not been fished commercially for ten years and it is estimated they contain £ 80 million worth of the shellfish.
Many vans and quad bikes descend on Southport at the start of the Cockle Picking Season to the dismay of local residents and to the detriment of the local economy and to the anger of people living close to the beaches who realise that there will be an escalation of rubbish around the cockle grounds. Local councils have to grant licences for cockle picking, but particularly in Southport it appears that most of the pickers will be from areas miles away from the cockle ground and that very little money will remain in the local community
Size: 2333px × 3500px
Location: Marshside, Southport, Merseyside, UK
Photo credit: © MediaWorldImages / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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