THERE have been renewed calls for greater regulation of the cockle-picking industry after scores of workers were left stranded in Morecambe Bay.

Liverpool Coastguard had to shepherd at least 144 cocklers to safety when two tractors crashed four miles off-shore at Newbiggin on Saturday.

And Geraldine Smith, Labour MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale, said: "I want a proper licensing system put in place for people working in the Bay.

"North West and North Wales Sea Fisheries tell me they can only introduce such a scheme on fisheries conservation grounds - in other words they could introduce one if cockles were in danger, but not if people's lives are in danger."

Police are now probing the possibility the incident was caused by gang rivalry.

RNLI hovercraft, RAF rescue helicopters and inshore lifeboats were called to help with the rescue mission on Saturday.

A group of 60 Scottish cocklers and another team of 76 Chinese cocklers were led to safety.

At least 21 Chinese cockle pickers were killed just a few miles away near Hest Bank in February after they became stuck as the tide came in.

Mark Clark, from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, said it was the 16th operation launched this year to rescue stranded cocklers in the area.

"If something like this happened at high tide in failing light, on a winter's day we could have a rerun of what happened in February, with fatalities."