Sea Coal - UK

July 2006 Joe Smith, now in his 70s, is one of the last remaining sea coal collectors in England. Working down the shore from the mines, he collects coal washed up by the sea. "It's a beautiful job. It keeps you healthy", states Joe. In its heyday, hundreds of other people worked alongside him, collecting an average of 2,000 tons of a coal every weekend. But since the mines have closed and demand for coal fallen, the others have slowly disappeared. "Now it's just old codgers like us."