Locals have raised concerns about cockle picking activity in the Teign estuary in recent weeks.

Teignbridge District Council confirmed that it had received four complaints ‘relating to the same small group of people harvesting cockles or winkles from the River Teign between 28 August and 1 September’.

Councillor Alistair Dewhirst, who represents Devon County Council as a member of the Devon and Severn Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority (IFCA) confirmed he has also received one formal complaint about cockle picking in the Teign Estuary.

‘This is not unusual and there is no evidence to suggest the activity is illegal,’ a Teignbridge spokesperson said. ‘People are allowed to harvest shellfish from our rivers for personal consumption,’ the spokesperson added.

Residents are worried that large-scale picking will decimate shellfish populations in the estuary. Good practice suggests a maximum collection limit of 5kg, or a bucket, for personal consumption. However, locals have reported seeing cockle pickers repeatedly plundering the estuary and filling their car boot with several buckets of cockles and oysters.

Currently, there is no legal limit to the amount of shellfish that can be collected for personal consumption in unprotected areas – a right that originates from the Magna Carta. There is, however, legislation covering traceability that should prevent shellfish being collected for commercial use.

Three years ago, councillors called for the introduction of by-laws to protect shellfish populations. However, IFCA, the organisation that would be responsible for implementing rules, is constrained by a lack of resources.

‘Devon and Severn IFCA covers the largest area of all the IFCA organisations across two separate coastlines but it receives the second smallest government grant,’ explained Councillor Dewhirst.

‘There were plans to introduce a comprehensive hand-gathering by-law that would have covered crab tiling, fishing for lugworms and ragworms and the gathering of mussels, cockles etc, but IFCA ran out of bandwidth with not enough staff or resources,’ added Stuart Reynolds from the Friends of the River Teign group.

Devon and Severn IFCA conducts shellfish surveys in the Teign estuary every other year to monitor stocks. The next survey is due totake place in October.