Agenda item

The Vice Chair will provide a verbal update in relation to the Crustacean Deaths Collaborative Working Group.

The Vice Chair provided the Panel with an update in relation to the work of the Crustacean Deaths Collaborative Working Group.  The Vice Chair had produced a summary report which was circulated to Panel Members prior to the meeting.

The report outlined that the Working Group had produced its draft report on the mass die-offs of crustaceans in November 2023 but there were several issues that required clarification including peer reviews of some of the scientific evidence.

The report cast doubt on the official position of the Government and Defra (Department of Environment Foor and Rural Affairs).  Their position was that the mass die-offs could not be linked to the dredging operations carried out at Teesport around the time of the event and the Government believed that pyridine contaminant was not the reason for the deaths.

The report of the Working Group raised a number of key issues, including:-

·        Limited data on the level of catches over the period of the die-offs.

·        Lack of testing of sediment samples in the River Tees at the time of the die-offs and failure to test for Pyridine, or to allow independent bodies such as the University of Newcastle, to carry out such tests.

·        Testing was carried out by PD Ports as the Statutory Harbour Master, despite the fact they have a commercial interest in the development of Teesport.

·        The likelihood that so called ‘capital dredging’ had led to contaminants from the subsoil at the bottom of the estuary entering the River Tees. Capital dredging being those dredges which remove the subsoil at the bottom of the river and not just sediment washed into the estuary.

·        Dredging carried out by UK Dredger ‘Orca’ in September 2021 involved a large amount of sediment and subsoil being dumped out at sea including highly contaminated soil, and that such quantities would not normally have been permitted to be disposed of in this way. The mass die-off occurred shortly after this dumping had taken place.

Furthermore, it was the belief of two key witnesses, Dr Caldwell of Newcastle University and Dr Gibbon of Manchester University, that the need to quickly complete the new dock at Teesport, at a lower cost, had taken priority over the use of safe dredging and disposal methods to limit exposure of toxic chemicals and that it was possible that pyridine in the sediment was the key element leading to the catastrophic die-off of lobsters and crabs.  There was concern that future dredging on the same scale would lead to more die-off which could seriously damage fishing in the north east coastal waters.

Local Councils would be asked to consider the findings of the report and determine what course of action should be taken to ensure a full and fair investigation into the cause of the die-off events.

The Vice Chair highlighted that the Final Report of the Working Group was anticipated in June and proposed that it should be subsequently submitted to Full Council for determination.

AGREED that the information provided be noted and that the final Report of the Crustacean Deaths Collaborative Working Group be submitted to Full Council in June, or as soon as practical following its publication, for consideration.