Fishing mystery SOLVED: Defra uncovers ’cause’ of UK’s crab and lobster stock wipe out


After a thorough investigation, Defra and partner agencies have arrived the reason why crabs and lobsters were mysteriously winding up dead by the thousands on the North East coast. The government agency believes that the deaths of the crabs and lobsters between October and December 2021 potentially resulted from a naturally occurring harmful algal bloom.

Over the past few months, tens of thousands of crabs and lobsters were found dead on beaches up and down the North East of England.

These deaths caused fishermen to fear for their livelihood as government agencies including DEFRA and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture (CEFAS) scrambled to find an explanation for the phenomenon. 

Fishermen have alleged that these deaths may be linked to the dredging of the River Tees.

However, the evidence collected by the agencies has led them to state: “it is unlikely that chemical pollution, sewage or infectious aquatic animal diseases were the cause of the deaths. No traces of chemical contaminants have been found that could have caused an event of this scale. 

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“Follow up survey work carried out by the Environment Agency on the 18th and 19th of January 2022 has also shown live healthy crabs present in the area, albeit in reduced numbers.

“A review of dredging activity and water samples found no evidence of a link between the disposal of dredged sediment and the deaths.

“The sampling of sediment that has been licenced by the MMO for disposal to the designated sites off the Tees confirmed that no chemical determinants exceeded concentrations (‘Action Levels’) that would be harmful to marine life.

DEFRA also noted that a further review of dredging, disposal activity and water samples found no evidence of a link between the disposal of dredged sediment and the mass crustacean deaths.

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