Bait Digging & Collecting Code

• Always carefully replace stones or seaweed when collecting crabs, to avoid damaging other sheltering animals
• Support a voluntary ban on ‘rockworm’ collecting and avoid using any methods that damage the chalk reef
• Take care to avoid putting roosting or feeding wintering birds to flight especially towards high tide or at night
• Back-fill any holes that you dig to restore the seashore and make it safe for other users – unless the tide is about to do this for you!
• Take care to avoid disturbance to archaeological sites within St Mildred’s & Minnis Bay
• Keep away from areas that may cause a danger with other priority users, such as designated launch sites or moorings areas
• Avoid using large bore bait pumps close to the shoreline
• Take re-usable buckets or containers for collecting
• Avoid collecting (or using) rare or unusual bait such as pipefish or lumpfish

‘Sandwich & Pegwell Bay National Nature Reserve’

In addition to this code, a workshop between local bait diggers and conservation representatives produced a local voluntary Pegwell Bay NNR – Bait & Bird Agreement (2007, updated 2009) – to help reduce the impact of this activity on the important bird life within the National Nature Reserve.

England Coast Path: New access restrictions were brought in 2016, when the new England Coastal Path was launched around this part of the England coast (Marine & Coastal Access Act, 2009) and subsequently updated with the Dog Control PSPO in 2023.

Please Note.  For 2024-25:  There is a temporary BAIT DIGGING BAN within Minnis Bay to allow the recovery of worm populations following a mass mortality due to an extreme algal bloom in 2024.