Fishermen fear further shellfish die-off

Fishermen who blame dredging for a shellfish die-off along the North East coast fear more sediment will soon be dumped at sea, causing further damage.

Thousands of crabs and lobsters have washed up across Teesside and North Yorkshire since 2021.

Campaigners say dredging - which is done routinely on the River Tees - released a chemical that is toxic to shellfish.

The government said naturally-occurring algae was the most likely cause.

In September last year more dredging work was undertaken to deepen a new quay in the Teesside freeport area.

Fishermen and other campaigners are worried that more dredging for the new quay later this year will cause similar die offs.

Marine biologist and fisherman Joe Redfern claimed the dredging "triggered" the deaths of shellfish that washed up on beaches and in catches.

He said nearly 1.2 million tonnes of sediment - to be dredged as part of major redevelopment works in the Freeport area - will be dumped at sea rather than being sent to landfill.

"We are terrified as a fishing community that the dredge material is going to destroy the marine ecosystem and ultimately destroy our livelihoods," Mr Redfern said.

The building of the Teesside Freeport is a key policy for the region's Conservative elected mayor Ben Houchen and is intended to bring thousands of jobs to the area.

An investigation by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the most likely cause of the 2021 die-off was a naturally-occurring algal bloom.

Mr Houchen agrees with the government research.

But a study commissioned by fishermen and carried out by researchers at the universities of York, Newcastle, Durham and Hull, suggested that a toxic chemical called pyridine, used as an anti-corrosion treatment in marine infrastructure, could have caused the shellfish deaths.

Simon Clarke, Conservative MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, disputes the findings.

"Dredging for the freeport has been blamed for the crustacean die-off and that is deeply unfair because die-off occurred in October 2021 and dredging didn't start until 11 months later, in September 2022," he said.

Nevertheless, Scarborough and Whitby Conservative MP Sir Robert Goodwill has called for an urgent investigation into the matter.

The government's chief scientific advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, has also established an independent group to assess the evidence around the marine deaths.

Adrian Noble is one of the fishermen who fears for the future if the cause of mass shellfish deaths is not identified and resolved quickly.

"It's going to decimate me, I'll have to go on the dole," he said. "It's just devastating."

For more on this story watch Politics North (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire) on BBC One 15 January at 10:00 GMT

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