Countless thousands of sea creatures are washing up on beaches in the north east of England in an unprecedented disaster which has horrified locals.
Piles of animals were found in ‘waist deep’ seaweed in some cases, with crabs, lobsters and various other crustaceans scattered across the sand on the Teeside coast.
Residents said the incident is the ‘worst’ they have ever seen and will add to growing concerns about the future marine wildlife amid the climate crisis ahead of Glasgow’s COP26 environmental summit.
The Environment Agency has launched an investigation and is looking into whether pollution is to blame.
It comes after the Government voted to allow polluting companies to dump raw sewage into British waterways.
Huge numbers of shell fish and other marine animals – dead and alive – have been seen on beaches between Marske and Saltburn; Seaton Carew and further north at Seaham.
Marske resident Sharon Bell, who walks the stretch of beach near her home every day, said the numbers of creatures have steadily increased over the past two weeks.
She told TeesideLive that she was out early on Monday morning with husband Christopher when they found piles of animals – and then spent four hours trying to return any live ones back into the water.
‘I was utterly shocked and saddened to see in some parts, waist deep seaweed full of thousands of dead and alive crabs and lobsters, all kinds and species,’ she said.
The 48-year-old, who has lived in the area for 21 years, continued: ‘I have never seen anything like this.
‘Something is very, very wrong here.
This has been building up for a couple of weeks, along our coast and no-one is doing anything about it.’
Sharon added: ‘It was just awful to see.
‘It was so deep in some parts and piled that high.’
Local media have reported dead crustaceans have been spotted on various beaches in the region stretching back more than two week – with an Environment Agency investigation ongoing.
A spokesman told TeesideLive on Monday: ‘We are working with partners at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture and North Eastern Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authority to investigate why hundreds of dead crabs have washed up along the shore in the Tees Estuary and neighbouring beaches.
‘Samples of water, sediment, mussel and crab have been collected and are being sent to our labs for analysis, to consider whether a pollution incident could have contributed to the deaths of the animals.
We have also shared samples with CEFAS labs for disease analysis.’
Redcar MP Jacob Young said: ‘Deeply worrying that this seems to be continuing on our coastline.
‘I have raised it with Ministers and will continue to, until the cause is identified.’
The area’s former MP, Anna Turley, branded the scenes ‘apocalyptic’ on Sunday.
The EA is asking the public to call them on 0800 807060 if they are aware of any pollution incidents that could be affecting wildlife.
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