Winkle pickers in Dungarvan

Thought that you may like this picture from the archive. It is a little confusing tough. It does not look like it is winkles that they are picking. Winkles are normally picked by hand from under rocks, into a can and then placed in the bag...It is also very unlikely that four bags of winkles would have been picked while the tide was out...other than that, winkles are black....I wonder?