2025 Wash Cockle Fishery Update: measures for the protection of small cockles
Since 2023, management measures for the Wash cockle fishery have included measures which require the sorting of catch to exclude cockles which are less than 10mm. The measure is considered to be particularly important for the protection of future fisheries this year, given that the fishery is likely to focus on the 2024 year class of cockles.
Consultation on the measure identified that stakeholders had a preference for the measure to be clearer and more specific. Having carefully considered the consultation responses, revised wording of the measure has been implemented and will be in effect for the start of the fishery (14 July 20245). The permit conditions have been updated to reflect this revision and can be viewed here. In summary, the revised wording of the measure requires the following:
- Cockle catch must not contain more than 30% (by weight) cockles which will be rejected by a 10mm riddle screen;
- Fishermen must sort catch in order to comply with this measure and must spread rejected catch evenly and thinly over the sands.
It is thought that careful selection of fishing areas to avoid areas where small (less than 10mm) cockles are in high densities combined with sorting (use of net bags is typically preferred and thought to be effective) will enable compliance with this measure.
The revised wording can be found at permit conditions 10 and 11 in the full permit conditions below.