Steaming up beach-strewn cockles

THE other morning, walking the scoured sands of Courtmacsherry Bay after the storm, I came upon many full, fat cockles.

Ever the forager, I put three dozen in my hat – the only available receptacle – and took them home. That night, we would have shellfish tagliatelle. Food half for free! I kept my eyes open for cockles as I walked.

When they are fat and stranded, they catch the glint of the low sun or cast a crescent shadow easily seen. Later, inside them, I found creatures I’d never come upon before, pea crabs, the size of one’s small fingernail. They live their entire lives within the shells of the living cockles; at least, the female does. The male swims about. Upon finding an open cockle with a receptive hen inside, he dives through the open gape to fertilise her eggs. He may sit and wait until she does so, his cold, soft paramour beside him before he leaves her and travels on.