Tag Archives: chemical poisoning

From the heart of a Hartlepool fisher – to EFRA

Dear EFRA COMMITTEE, MMO, local MPs, councillors and interested parties. Please log the ecosystem rock pool make up life change, with the many other die-offs that you haven’t given me feedback on, since the freeport dredge started in 1 September 2021, and the 145.000 tonnes of capital dredge from the toxic Seaton Channel, that you have allowed to be removed, irrespective of its chemical makeup, and dumped six miles out, in the last two weeks. I eagerly await the MMO answers, please copy the EFRA Committee in, and the feedback [as to] why these creatures are all that’s left in the ponds. >click to read< 07:46

Experts quizzed over freeport, dredging and algal blooms as crab deaths on coast investigated

The deaths of thousands of sea creatures washed up on Teesside’s beaches are to be investigated in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Teesport operator PD Ports, the Environment Agency, a Whitby fishing association and academics will give evidence to MPs about the mass sea deaths. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee will hear from witnesses about the crustacean deaths after committee chair Conservative Sir Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby, branded the situation “disturbing”. A Defra investigation earlier this year concluded the cause of the crab deaths to be a naturally occurring algal bloom but campaigners believe dredging has unearthed historical toxins – including a chemical called pyridine – which has caused the deaths. >click to read< 12:15

BBC documentary examines mass crab die off on Teesside coast and what has happened since

A TV documentary examining the impact of the mass crab and lobster die off on the Teesside coast is set to air. We Are England: Trouble at Sea looks at the events of last October and what has happened since. In it, film makers speak to fishermen, conservationists, the Tees port authority PD Ports and scientists to document the effects of the worrying occurrence, the subsequent investigation and the theories on its cause that have been an ongoing source of dispute. Teessiders will know huge piles of crabs, lobsters and shellfish began to wash up on beaches around the Redcar and Markse areas as well as Hartlepool a year ago before washing down the coast as far as Whitby. They were seen in piles that were waist deep in some places and most were dead or dying.>click to read< 21:32

Impact of mass crab die-off ‘not as severe as feared’ but report criticised by fisherman

A monitoring report into the state of shellfish stocks along the Teesside coast following the mass crab and lobster die off has concluded the impact ‘was not as severe as originally feared.’ But a fisherman who works off the Hartlepool coast has hit out at the findings and claims it does not paint a true picture. However, Stan Rennie, who fishes from Hartlepool, has criticised the report. He says it includes the catches of all of the visiting super crabbers which work thousands of pots, and he says, it doesn’t take into account the fact that fishermen are going further afield to get out of the die-off areas. >click to read< 14:48

Deaths, accusations and a search for truth: The Teesside seaside die-off and where we are now

It is an issue that has caused a huge amount of concern right the way across Teesside and down into North Yorkshire. And it is simply not going away. Last October, residents living in the Marske area began to notice huge piles of dead and dying crabs, lobsters and shellfish washing up on the beach between the seaside town and neighbouring Saltburn – in places, the piles were waist deep. Fishing livelihoods have been decimated, protests have been mounted and the campaign for a re-investigation continues. Here’s what has happened so far as the issue continues to prove contentious. >click to read< 07:58