The Other Side: Death In The Bay - The Cockle-Picker's Story

Storyline

A film chronicling the aftermath of the tragic death of 23 illegal Chinese immigrants, who far from home were desperate to cash in on the rich cockle beds out in the dangerous sands of the Morecambe Bay Estuary. Local people watched on for many months as they were driven far out into the Estuary twice a day at the turn of the tide by the true profiteers, the gang masters. After so many near misses it was with horror but not surprise that dawn broke one morning with the news of massive loss of life, when racing tides cut off the cockle-pickers, lost in the dark and unable to tell which way to run or explain where they were on their mobile phones. The story is one of greed and great sadness, charting recent attempts to prevent overfishing of the diminishing stock of cockles and exploring the predicament of the cockle-pickers, whose ambition to make money to send home and their fear of the gangs they were beholden to conspired with the economic opportunity the lucrative cockle beds presented to create conditions for an inevitable tragedy.