02/02/2006 - Environment
Agency Wales announces a public consultation
starting this week (13 January 2006 and
running for a month) on the future management
of the Dee cockle fishery. The Agency has
applied to the Department for Environment
Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the National
Assembly for Wales for a Regulating Order
which will allow for better controls for
regulating and funding the fishery. The
proposed principal changes to the current
legislation will include an extension to
the close season, an annual allocation of
50 licences based on evidence of previous
participation in the fishery, a licence
fee of £992, cold weather restriction
on opening,daily quotas and access from
designated points around the estuary.
The objective is to create a sustainable,
self-financing fishery operating for six
months of the year. It is estimated that
the fishery can support a total annual catch
of between 500 and 2,500 tonnes, generating
an average gross income of between £250,000
and £1,250,000 a year and supporting
up to 50 licensees.
The Dee is one of five major cockle fisheries
within the UK. It has had partial regulation
since byelaws introduced a permitting system
in 1995. The byelaws do not enable the Agency
to restrict the number of fishermen, or
to recover the costs required regulating
the fishery.
Currently every applicant must be granted
a permit. Monitoring, administration and
enforcement costs are high and are currently
funded by the taxpayer. The absence of adequate
controls has resulted in a highly volatile
fishery with large numbers of inexperienced
casual labourers descending on the estuary.
Large numbers of fishermen can damage the
protected features of the estuary through
trampling and disturbance.
Enforcement on this scale is also very
resource intensive and large numbers of
cocklers create social problems through
littering, illegal parking and nuisance.
Monitoring of catches is also problematic.
Alan Winstone, the Agency’s Environment
Manager for the North Wales coast commented:
'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. A properly
managed fishery where the beneficiaries
fund the regulatory costs and cockling is
carried out by professionals with full consideration
for safety and the environment is essential.'
Consultation documents are available from
DEFRA or Welsh Assembly Government (See
Notes) and will be available on the Agency’s
website at www.environmentagency.gov.uk/yourenv/consultations/1251972/
