Scarborough Harbour 'dangerous' for fishermen after four years no dredging

Operating out of Scarborough harbour has become "dangerous" because of a lack of dredging over the last four years, according to a sixth generation fisherman.

Silting has seen fishing vessels and other craft – including a replica of a Spanish galleon – grounding and Paul Fishburn said a recent incident could have been “catastrophic”.

Mr Fishburn, who owns the shellfish boat Prevail, said a few weeks ago a cousin of his got grounded in the middle of the harbour, blocking the channel for other fishing boats waiting to get in, including his son. They'd had to wait until the tide rose high enough to bring the boat off the bottom, so it could move and let the others in – a dangerous situation if the weather had turned nasty.

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Mr Fishburn said: “I have never seen it as bad as what it is – even speed boats that run trips in the summer are floating in eight inches of water. They are sat on the bottom. The whole place is falling to bits."

Fishing vessels moored in Scarborough harbour. PIC: James HardistyFishing vessels moored in Scarborough harbour. PIC: James Hardisty
Fishing vessels moored in Scarborough harbour. PIC: James Hardisty

Chairman of Whitby's Commercial Fishing Association James Cole said Whitby harbour hadn’t had any serious dredging for over 12 months.

It needs doing regularly as the River Esk, which runs into the sea at Whitby, is constantly bringing spoil off the Moors. He said the current situation was restricting the times the 20-strong shellfishing fleet could go out to sea. “We always had faith we could get in and out of the harbour.

“It wasn’t something you had to worry about. It’s been an absolute headache. It’s imperative we have a well dredged harbour – our lifeboat needs to be able to get in and out. There’s lives at stake.”

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North Yorkshire Council, which runs the harbours, is bringing its dredger Sandsend in-house after the company which previously operated it was dissolved in September. It still has to get a skipper and licences granted by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO).

Harbour users were reassured last month that the dredger would be operational by mid November.

A recent meeting was told the MMO licensing authority is “taking a very rigid approach...following what has happened at Teeside.”

A panel of scientists last year found no “single clear cause” for the deaths of thousands of shellfish along the North-East and North Yorkshire coast in 2021.

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They found a naturally-occurring algal bloom, which was identified as the most likely cause by the Government’s original investigation, was “unlikely” to have caused the deaths and it was “very unlikely” that dredging or toxic chemicals were to blame

North Yorkshire Council was asked whether there was an issue of contamination in Scarborough Harbour and when they expected to start work.

Corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said: “We have been working hard to respond to the technical queries from the MMO. We are hopeful that the licences will be issued soon as we can then begin our winter dredging programme.

“Findings have shown that it is very unlikely that the recent shellfish die-off was caused by regular dredging.” The MMO said processing of the licences was ”in line with the standard information requirements for applications of this type”.

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