I’ve been readin gsome articles about the Cockle picking tragedy in Morecambe Bay.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/3466471.stm
I gotta tell you, I don’t know what a cockle is. What is a cockle and how could so many people die from picking them. The articles suggested that they drowned due to rising tides, but I’m still not sure.
Are cockle some type of shellfish?
Online dictionaries abound, my friend.
Didn’t you ever jump rope as a child:
seashells
cockleshells
easy ivy over!
Note: the link takes a while to load, but does come up. Looks very similar to a clam shell, my dictionary defines as “any bivalve mollusk of the genus Cardium, having somewhat heart shaped, radially ribbed valves, especially C. edule, the common edible species of Europe.” - Source Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language.
Ok, fair enough.
So they are edible shellfish. But still, how could 19 people be drowned in one fell swoop while “picking” these things.
Morecambe Bay can be extremely dangerous due to the very great range of the tides. They expose very large areas of sand (including quicksand) at low tide, and the incoming tide rushes in very quickly, creating a tidal bore:
It would be very easy for inexperienced people foraging too far out on the flats to be overtaken by a rising tide, which I assume is what happened in this case.
From what I read, apparently the tide in that bay rises very quickly. This was also worsened by a storm surge moving into the area. The article I saw (I didn’t read your link) mentioned that the area is known as treacherous with lots of “quicksand”. My interepretation: it’s a long low sloping tidal plain that can be quickly filled with highwaters and/or dangerous currents. The tide can be out for a long time, when the area is not covered with water or the water is very shallow. When the tide comes back in, especially in an unusual situation like a storm surge.
The Morecambe Bay tide can reputably come in behind an 8 foot wave faster than a horse can gallop.
There can be a fair amount of clay in these environs. Individual particles may be “plate” shaped and can possibly flip over during the conditions present in a changing tide. The result of this is that the beach is at first stable and easy to walk on, then when the tide changes and the “platelets” flip any beachcombers get bogged down along the strand in a quicksand like environment and as the tide comes in the strand becomes firm again and they’re stuck as if in cement with rapidly rising, cold water coming in before they can dig themselves out.
I know this can happen elsewhere (Alaska), maybe in Morecambe Bay as well.
Just another link, to a BBC News Article, on the dangers of the Morecambe Bay area, which sounds even worse than what I had posited.
Note that at the bottom of the article are some interesting anecdotes from people familiar with the area and their experiences with the sands and tides there.
Cockles live in the sand and you have to dig them up, like harvesting potatoes (but with no green stalks to show you where to dig).
Morecambe Bay is a death trap. Nobody in their right minds would go out willingly onto the bay at night, unless they were forced or unaware of the very high risks. Apparently, the tide came in faster than the victims could run, add this to the fact that the bays mud is very sticky = mass drowning.
Surely everyone knows Molly Malone:
In Dublin’s fair city, where the girls are so pretty
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow
Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!
A-live a-live O! A-live a-live O!
Crying cockles and mussels alive a-live O!