Cockle and Mussel Stock (bird food) Surveys in the Dee, Traeth Lafan and Burry Inlet 2004 dataset https://portal.medin.org.uk/portal/start.php?tpc=007_NRW_DS109749 Special Protection Areas (SPAs) are strictly protected sites classified in accordance with Article 4 of the EC Birds Directive. They are classified for rare and vulnerable birds (as listed on Annex I of the Directive), and for regularly occurring migratory species. The Dee Estuary, Traeth Lafan and Burry Inlet SPA support nationally and internationally important populations of wildfowl and waders as well as important cockle fisheries. The removal of cockles and the associated disturbance caused by fishing them needs to be balanced with bird food requirements. The aim of the project is to assess the food requirements of wading birds, such as oystercatcher and knot that over-winter in these areas in order to set monitoring targets and to assess the implications of cockle and mussel fishing scenarios to the bird populations. The purpose of this data capture was to provide data on stock abundance and distribution across the whole of the survey areas. The data collected and its results will primarily be used for site monitoring and also for casework. Longer term work on the Burry Inlet may combine this data with data gathered on bird foraging behaviour, together with site specific data on bird numbers and used in an individual behaviour based model to predict the food requirements of a bird population. 20041130