In response to the mass mortality of crabs and lobsters in the Northeast reported between October 2021 and December 2022, the Department of the Environment was requested by the government to appoint a panel of academic experts under Sir Gideon Henderson, government Chief Scientific Advisor, to be known as the Crustacean Mortality Expert Panel (CMEP), to determine the cause. Their terms of reference included examining possible agents such as algal blooms or toxic chemicals such as pyridine disturbed by dredging of the river Tees or a pathogen yet to be identified.

The die-offs as reported appear to have come in three distinct waves so far, commencing in October 2021, May 2022, and October 2022. The waves appeared to commence in the sea from the east of Hartlepool and commensurate with the prevailing current reaching as far south as Scarborough.

When these die-offs were originally reported, the Department of the Environment was quick to ascribe the cause to an algal bloom which of course lets the deep dredging of the river Tees and the dumping of the resultant spoil in the sea, east of Hartlepool off the hook. However, our fishermen were not happy and did not accept the Department’s explanation, but it took the government a whole year to wake up and request a report on the mortalities.

The Department of the Environment is literally global in its reach and Byzantine in its complexity; The report produced for the government was under the auspices of Lord Benyon as the Minister of State for Biosecurity, Marine and Rural Affairs whose responsibilities include biosecurity and borders, Northern Ireland, animal welfare, marine and oceans, Defra delivery of Carbon Budgets and Net Zero, green finance, international nature and wildlife, rural affairs, lead for Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD), the Animal Health and Welfare Board for England (AHWBE) and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Therese Coffey is the Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

The report of the expert panel cast doubt on an algal bloom. They did not find any evidence of a harmful algal bloom or a loss of oxygen in the water associated with it for the periods in question.

It is noteworthy that algae are responsible for fifty percent of the oxygen in the atmosphere through photosynthesis and without that there would be no marine animals. No doubt the government were keen to blame an algal bloom as ‘evidence’ of anthropogenic global warming.

The experts decided that pyridine or other toxic chemical released from dredging didn’t cause the mass die-offs. They did decide that a novel pathogen was probably responsible although they produced no histological evidence of its existence in the animals washed up. They also suggested that a combination of factors might be involved.

One of the many agencies of the Department of the Environment is the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS). Surely, CEFAS should have been busily examining and reporting its findings from the beginning of the die-offs and government ministers should have been demanding answers throughout?

The government have not produced a definitive explanation as to the cause of the die-offs and therefore can neither predict the likelihood of repetitions or mitigations for the cause. Our fishermen are faced with the loss of their livelihoods without any light at the end of the tunnel; the government has let them down once again because of its lax organisation and control of the resources that they and all taxpayers funds.

The UK Independence Party will abolish the Department of the Environment. It is very clear that this department lacks focus. We will ensure that there is a Minister and a Department with exclusive responsibility for the marine resources within our Exclusive Economic Zone.

John Gartside

UK Independence Party – Fishing Spokesman