Crab death inquiry: Calls for dredging to create Tees freeport be paused

Dredging to create a freeport on Teesside should be paused until a map of chemicals in the river bed is made, an inquiry into crab deaths has heard.

A panel of MPs has heard fisherman are "terrified" of the dredging going ahead next year.

The government says a naturally-occurring algal bloom was the most likely cause of thousands of shellfish deaths on the North East coast in 2021.

Academics from four universities have disputed this, saying the deaths could have been caused by a combination of poisoning by industrial toxins, along with an algal bloom originally ruled as the main factor. 

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee heard experts from both sides of the debate at a hearing on Tuesday 25 October.

Joe Redfern, secretary of Whitby Commercial Fishing Association, told the committee that he thinks further dredging could bring an end to the North East fishing industry.

Teesworks did not start dredging until September this year and it is currently depositing the sediment on land. It will not be disposing of it at sea until next year.

PD Ports carries out maintenance dredging all year round.

A mass die-off saw huge numbers of crustaceans wash up along the coast near Teesside and North Yorkshire last October.

Hartlepool fisherman Stan Rennie believes an “extinction episode” is happening in the North Sea and stated if it was happening in any other region the government would be throwing the kitchen sink at the issue. The panel also heard from agencies and academics with opposing views on the cause of the mass deaths.

Mr Redfern said: “We are terrified that if this next round of dredging goes ahead it’s going to be the end of the North East fishing industry.” He believes it is “undoubtable” that dredging and pyridine have played a part in the die-offs.

David McCandless, chief officer at the North Eastern Inshore and Fishing Conservation Authority (NIFCA) said that lobster catch levels were “reasonably encouraging” but that crabs were at least 50% down and in some areas they could be 90% down.

In response, Mr Rennie said: “I find it so frustrating that NIFCA’s report is so misleading.” He said half of the Hartlepool fishing fleet were out of business and the industry had subsequently been hit by job losses.

The fisherman added that the lobster catch was down 50%, undersized lobsters and pregnant lobsters were down 75% and velvet crabs and brown crabs were down 100%. Mr Redfern said velvet and shore crabs were “completely decimated”.

Mr Rennie said he had a 58% reduction in income and branded the situation “absolutely devastating”. He relies on summer season work from July to September – in 2021 he made £8,761 but this year it was just £3,753.

The committee also heard from Dr Gary Caldwell who was behind a study commissioned by the North East Fishing Collective into the mass die-offs. It concluded that “pyridine in seawater is highly toxic to crabs even at low levels, showing indications of attacking the nervous system as evidenced by the twitching and convulsing behaviours.”

Earlier in the session PD Ports’ director Jerry Hopkinson said another dredging machine had been brought in after there was slippage. This meant that the company did 150,000 tonnes of dredging in ten days when it would usually take 20 to 30 days.

Dr Caldwell questions whether the slippage could have disrupted a “pyridine reservoir”. However, Mr Hopkinson said: “It’s coincidental that the dredger arrived when these crustacean mortalities occurred. Frankly I think we are looking in the wrong direction.

He went on to add: “This type of relatively intense dredging was not a one-off occurrence, we will have done this many times over the last 40-50 years.”

Dr Caldwell said the academics were not the “enemy of development” but called for a temporary moratorium on capital dredging being carried out by Teesworks on the South Bank. He said there needs to be an independently verified pyridine map.

He added: “For you to understand the nature of the risk of pyridine… you need to know what’s in the sediment.”

Rachel Hartnell, science director, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS) said there was good evidence to suggest algal bloom caused the mass die-off. She added satellite data and some testing in the area found a bloom was almost certainly present and persisted until a week into the mass die off until the water cooled. Before adding that this can cause oxygen depletion leading to crustacean deaths.

A spokesperson for South Tees Development Corporation said: “We continue to follow all legal standards and requirements as is required, including the issued licence and guidance from DEFRA and MMO, who continue to rule out dredging as a likely cause. The Tees Valley Mayor continues to push Government for financial support those fishermen whose livelihoods have been affected by this issue.”

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