COCKLES picked recently at Pilling Sands could be dangerous if eaten by humans, a Wyre resident fears.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she'd seen cocklers working last week around Fluke Hall sands, Pilling, despite a closure notice on mussel beds 'less than a mile along the coast'.

"I thought to myself 'this is dangerous'. The cockle pickers come once a year and they're usually there for about two weeks. They've been picking up absolute lorry loads of these things," she said.

She contacted Wyre Borough Council, but said she was still worried that poisonous shellfish could make their way into the human food chain.

"I didn't know if the cockle pickers were aware of the closure," she said.

Mussels in the Wyre estuary - along the coast from Pilling - tested positive in late July for Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) toxins prompting immediate closure of some shellfish beds.

DSP is caused when filter feeding shellfish, such as cockles and mussels, eat certain types of algae. Humans can develop stomach cramps, diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and chills within 30 minutes of eating the poisoned shellfish, and recovery can take around three days.

Both Wyre Borough Council and Lancaster City Council have been involved in safety testing and monitoring the shellfish beds along the Wyre coast, Wyre BC said. Closed beds are only re-opened if two consecutive test results, at least seven days apart, are negative for DSP.

A Wyre BC spokesman confirmed: "At the present time we have no evidence to suggest that DSP is present where this person was seen cockling.

"However, we are monitoring the situation and will continue to discuss it with the Food Standards Agency and if we feel there is any threat to public health we will take the appropriate action.

"We would be interested to hear if anyone suspects people are gathering cockles or mussels in closed areas."

The council added that its tests had found only mussels were affected, but that it had banned the gathering of both cockles and mussels in closed areas as an extra safeguard.