COCKLE COMMITTEE NOT TO BLAME The Chairman of the South Wales Sea Fisheries Committee has refuted allegations made in a Carmarthen County Council report, the subject of recent media articles. In a statement made on Friday, Mr Nick O Sullivan said “whilst the antics of the cockle industry have been correctly reported, the responsibility for the problems caused in the community has been laid at the wrong door. Civil and public order disturbances are not the remit of the SWSFC. Cockles are in big demand and the problems that causes need to be shared amongst various agencies, cooperating to use their powers to the full. This includes Carmarthen CC. The report has failed to recognise the valiant efforts made by Fishery Officers to control the fishery in the face of some very difficult circumstances. Their actions in defending the byelaws gave rise to unprecedented levels of prosecutions and fines in the local Magistrates Court. The 2005 Three Rivers fishery was closed with about 2500 tonnes of cockle still remaining giving rise to record feeding migratory bird numbers which were counted in the following winter. The Countryside Council for Wales has not notified us of any lasting adverse effects on the estuary environment. The Burry Inlet Fishery is in line to be reaccredited with the Marine Stewardship Council stamp for sustainability, the only molluscan fishery in the world to be so recognised. The successful management of cockle fisheries is likely to give rise to another bumper harvest in 2007. The inaccurate and misleading Carmarthen report does not assist the preparations required to ensure that fishery proceeds as smoothly as possible. The cockles cannot be wished away and people will turn up to fish them. The Committee would be responding to the serious and unsubstantiated allegations at the highest level once its members had considered the report in detail. NOTES:
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