Boris Johnson urged to help 'devastated' fishermen after mystery mass deaths of crabs and lobsters

Jacob Young, the Conservative MP for Redcar, raised the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday.

Fishermen in the area are adamant the deaths are linked to harmful chemicals released by dredging, which is being done in the River Tees as part of the Teesside Freeport project, but the Government said a naturally-occurring algal bloom is to blame.

There have been concerns from crews that their livelihoods are at risk because they cannot catch enough to cover their costs.

Mr Young said: “As the Prime Minister knows from his visits to Redcar and Cleveland, we enjoy miles of beautiful coastline.

“However since October last year we’ve seen thousands of dead and dying crustaceans wash ashore. Defra conducted an investigation into this which led to the theory of algal bloom being the primary cause of these deaths.

“However, this report does nothing to support the fishermen left devastated by this freak event through no fault of their own.

“Will the Prime Minister looked at how he could support this vital industry to get them back on their feet?”

Mr Johnson replied with an apparent reference to the Government’s pre-existing £100m UK Seafood Fund, which was established last December to support the long term future and sustainability of the UK fisheries and seafood sector and is managed by Defra.

The Prime Minister said: “My Honourable friend and I were walking together on the seafront eating a lemon top when somebody raised this very point with us.

“I can tell him we have ruled out chemical pollution. But we are making another £100m of investment including in communities such as his and working with the fishing industry to help them recover from this problem.”

Earlier this week, Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, said he believed it will be “pretty difficult” to get compensation from the Government while the issue is deemed to be a naturally occurring event as it would set a precedent.

'No single factor' identified

A Government report into the issue published last month failed to identify any “single, consistent, causative factor” for the deaths of the crustaceans.

But a harmful algal bloom in the area at about the same time was identified as being of significance, a report from a joint agency investigation into the incident said.

There were distressing scenes of large numbers of dead and dying lobsters and crabs on beaches. Dying animals were observed “twitching” and displaying lethargic behaviour and the inability to right themselves from on their backs.

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