Cockle pickers on the Toft Sand in The Wash off Boston, Lincolnshire, UK.

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Cockles in the Wash used to be fished by suction dredges deployed by boats moving over the sandbanks at high tide. But with the local fishing regulator, known as Eastern Sea Fisheries Joint Committee until 2011 when it became Eastern Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority, limiting the tonnage of cockles which could be taken each year, according to total stock calculated on spring surveys, the cockle dredging season tended to last only a month or so before the catch limit was taken up, notwithstanding a limit of four tonnes per boat per day. Therefore since 2009, cockles have been picked by hand, the boats from King's Lynn and Boston settling onto the sand and mud banks on the falling tide and the fishermen picking two tonnes per boat per day. The fishery lasts longer through the year and is more selective. After processing, much of the catch goes to the Dutch market.

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Size: 4288px × 2848px
Photo credit: © John Worrall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: bank, boat, boston, cloud, cockle, cockles, england, fishermen, fishing, flat, hand-picking, lincolnshire, mud, norfolk, pattern, reflection, sand, stump, tide, toft, uk, wash