Danger - Submerged Objects! - by Meryl McKean

We looked out across the estuary, the tide was still high, water filled the tributaries, which stretched out into the marshy grassland like an arterial network, they flowed one to another from the main river. At low tide vast sand banks would be exposed and the tributaries emptied completely, leaving them exposed like muddy slashes on the landscape. As part of our holiday we were visiting the village of Penclawdd, situated on the northern edge of the Gower Peninsular in Wales. Most of the village sits around the Burry estuary. As we watched we saw a queue of small motorised dinghys being launched from the slipway. Each was crewed by a team of 3 or 4 men and women, feet clad in wellies and armed with large sieves and buckets. We learned that these were cockle gatherers, catching the high tide and travelling out to where the low tide exposes the rich cockle beds. The cockles would be harvested and sold worldwide. The cockle industry has been part of this village’s history since Roman ti...