Are marine life deaths linked to pollution caused by River Tees dredging?

Why have thousands of lobsters, crabs and other forms of marine life been mysteriously dying along the north east coast of England?
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Fishermen have long argued that toxic chemicals are to blame - but the government has steadfastly ruled that out.
This programme can reveal new evidence that indicates those deaths could be linked to pollution caused by the dredging of the River Tees.
Correspondent: Alex Thomson
Producer: Nanette van der Laan
Camera and editor: Alastair Thomson
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[@drbuck6759]

Decent investigative journalism....a rarity in 2022.

[@daiu48]

Agreed! Northeast Bylines has an article online by Scott Hunter on pollution in the Tees Estuary (18/03/22). 500 tons of industrial waste were being pumped into the river daily. (Redcar and Cleveland Council report, 1970 )

[@njipods]

The fishermen should sue the government for loss of earnings. Massive class action

[@Patrick-jj5nh]

yes and the private companies who do the dredging.

[@jantyszka1036]

The government would just hire an army of lawyers who could pick fly s**t out of pepper: "The results of your research suggest the die-offs were 'highly likely' to have been caused by pollution, but you cannot be 100% certain, can you?" Reasonable doubt - case dismissed.

[@simonbilling2796]

Did anyone take a sample ? That can be validated?

[@ascgazz]

Every single way the tories can ruin us, THEY ARE.

[@xelthiavice4276]

yeah cuz labour have done such a great job in the past lol

[@pauln6803]

@@xelthiavice4276 Please tell us where they did worse?

[@ascgazz]

@@xelthiavice4276 Well, if you read your history books you will discover quite quickly that yes, Labour have indeed done such a great job in the past. ..but if you don’t actually care about the people that make up the nation, I can see how you don’t care about the party that represents them. Try and warm up your cold dead heart if you want to connect with people.

[@xelthiavice4276]

@@ascgazz the mad labour stalker is mad lol. maybe stick to attention seeking else where :)

[@jackster2568]

@@xelthiavice4276 Labour Stalker? Did you forget to take your schizo meds today?

[@goodwifelucy5602]

Haven't we gone full circle. The beaches,canals and rivers were foul when I was growing up.beaches like Blackpool and Bogor were famous for their sewage. Then the European Union made us clean up our waterways and hey presto all the wildlife came back. Over a decade of public sector starvation and no-one above the government to keep them in check this isn't the first recent story of water pollution and it won't be the last.

[@Ghengiskhansmum]

Tories seem to hate the idea of life on earth unless it's suffering or dying.

[@EGF1000]

As long as its not them, their donors and think tanks, and the rich.

[@TheWebstaff]

This is leveling up. Just happens to be it's the levels of poison that are being brought up.

[@kennethvenezia4400]

Don't worry Brits, Liz Truss is on the job now. So growth, growth, growth, is coming your way. Just STAY AWAY FROM THE WATER, and everything's gonna be GREAT! Oh ,one more thing. Don't eat any seafood

[@sameaulahad2824]

How can we let them do this to our country

[@znicolae1]

Voting Torry.

[@jeffsuter344]

Stop voting for them.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

Soon it will be mass human die offs.

[@jayjay-zb8zg]

I BET U LOCKED DOWN WHEN THEY TOLD U...

[@cjphillips9122]

12 years of Tory rule

[@Boo-pv4hn]

Thank you! So glad this is a story it’s sad the fact that the government position effectively saying the pollutants from industry and our household waste is toilets isn’t causing diebacks of wildLIFE in the ocean. This is pretty obviously wrong to the general person.

[@ScottyDog345]

Maybe it's the raw seawge the water companies have been pumping I to the rivers whilst taking £72 bb in dividends

[@Boo-pv4hn]

@@ScottyDog345 read the whole comment before commenting on it

[@XTSu-sl1bb]

Am from Middlesbrough and the Dredging is exactly the problem

[@XTSu-sl1bb]

However we need the development for the are but I just wish it was done safely

[@jeffsuter344]

@@XTSu-sl1bb Never happen under Tory dictatorship.

[@jamesfoulger2098]

South Bank or Slaggy Island as it was known because of the blast furnaces chucking slag from steel making blast furnaces onto the ground

[@NaTaahleee]

@@jamesfoulger2098 hmmm it’s ICI who I’d point my finger at

[@charlesflouvat1829]

Wasn't truss in charge of the environment before useless George?

[@Oluinneachain]

Yes. Quelle surprise?

[@EGF1000]

truss cut back monitoring to save a few million

[@Horizon344]

Good work by C4N

[@waltermcphee3787]

Same with river dumping of sewage, the environment agency has nothing to do with protecting our environment.

[@misswarda78]

Thanks Tories for ‘de-regulating’ and cutting the ‘red tape’ that kept our seas clean and the fishing industry afloat. Another Brexit gain! 🤔

[@T61APL89]

less red tape more red seas! heck maybe tax cuts will even lower the sea level... along with the national IQ

[@misswarda78]

@@T61APL89 👍😂😁

[@christopherward5065]

Unsurprisingly the Government is going to sacrifice the environment for a Free-port.

[@bereal6590]

👏👏👏👏 this is the worst part for me, yeah kill me keep me cold don't feed me and no nhs treatment bad enough but this gets me more riled than anything. Freeports are a tax haven and give nothing.... to kill the natural world is the most criminal so far, what's left then, a barren wasteland and kill the wildlife in the process....disgusting

[@michaeldavison9808]

yes please. Try living in this area for a few years - it is an industrial area that relies on industrial jobs. There aren't too many million pound a year banking jobs up here.

[@christopherward5065]

They don’t sound like great places to work. Lots of waived rights on pay and conditions. Lots of criminality. Big profits getting off-shored along with no tax for the mainland. They set up a tax border within the UK so it’s a bit like having a small foreign country on our mainland. The heavy metal pollution will affect the marine populations and the surrounding human population.

[@cyriuxx5750]

@@michaeldavison9808 live here and I'm going to tell you something. The resson for all of this is for a single monopile factory. Daily, I can see/hear about dredging. The cretin of our Mayor of the Tees Valley doesn't care about the enviroment. He allows raw sewage to be dumped by our beaches and has sold the majority of PUBLIC LAND to private investors, who own heavily polluting industries. Climate change is real, but it's Houchen's cover from ruining his freeport.

[@cyriuxx5750]

@@michaeldavison9808 your land has been sold so that houchen can make money. Not only that but Houchens stats are a complete lie

[@davidarchibald50]

A story worthy of the USSR.

[@adifferentwayuk3335]

I live next to the start of the Tyne. It's an old lead mining area. There digging dredging the river. Check out what's being done in Nenthead, Cumbria. There changing the whole river system in an effort to clean it. There was frogs, nesting birds, newts and a whole eco system that had developed with the area. Now it's becoming a dead site. It's the whole of the Tyne that is being messed with. Terrible

[@toriesdontgettazered7464]

Do not vote Tory, this is directly govs fault

[@lfrancescamichela5230]

The Environmental Agency is unfit for purpose, the only thing they do properly is taking public money but just to make 1 example it is now since 2015 that a Council in London has refused to spend £60 to buy concentrated herbicide for PENNYWORTH (it easily mixed with water and just pump sprayed on the pennyworth leaves emerging from the water a small boat would suffice to cover kilometres of infested rivers, as all the downstream contractors do regularly and has always worked) which is an invasive species that grows in lakes and rivers chocking all acquatic and interdependent life by extracting oxigen from the water. Now a whole tract of river is invaded by the plant and is impossible to tell where is solid ground and where is water and people fall in it, get hurt and even die. All the contractors of the Lakes Rivers canals waterways etc have cleared their parts of the pennyworth but because the Council owns the upstream section, those who are downstream have to keep spraying and even the fish suffers. The Environmental agency has received numerous letters and emails by affected parties, but in a system of back scratching 7 years later nothing has happened, the pennyworth upstream has swallowed up the river, chocked all life out if it, and anybody who ventures on it mistaking it for dry ground falls and gets very badly hurt and if the feet get entangled with the pennyworth they drawn. All thanks to the Environmental Agency, only good for swallowing public money. I bet they would cover up even in case of death. The laws to prevent this exist but the Environmental Agency does not enforce them and the Council won't even give that part of river to a contractor to develop it for sport fishing or sweetwater fish farming and preservation of wild life, thereby putting the river to good use, preserving the environment and people from constant herbicide exposures , and avoiding accidents and even deaths to human being.. They spend more money sending useless letters.

[@kevinhayes7830]

The Tories poring sewage into our rivers 😎👍

[@debbiehenri345]

This pollution has been poured into the Tees for decades, during 'all' governments regardless of their party politics: Tory, Labour, Liberal, all. It's a highly industrialised area at the edge of a highly populated one, and wherever there is a lot of industry there is a lot of pollution. There was no way this area could have been used again so soon without stirring up at least a century of muck, and it will remain a source of pollution for centuries to come - unless someone decides to actively cleanse the sediment, or bury it under another layer of sediment. Since that would be a non-profit exercise, it'll never be done.

[@darkshaman7087]

I bought mussels from Tesco’s last year and eat them and I was so for around 2 weeks of Christmas I could not get out of bed or even eat and hardly drunk anything so I think that was algae poisoning and those mussels was from Scotland and I’m not touching any shellfish ever again, also with the death of sea life in this English area it should not be consumed

[@stefanritchie7667]

Doesn't dredging rivers ruin them haven't we new this for a long time

[@ageoflove1980]

Ah this is obvously what Jacob Rees-Mogg ment when he said British fish were happier fish.

[@Keithlfpieterse]

RAW, UNTREATED SEWAGE AND CHEMICALS pumped into the ocean! Thanks to the Tories! Ewwwww! Lizzie leveling Up! Hahaha!

[@EGF1000]

It's directly her work. She cut down monitoring to save money.

[@cassandra2249]

Absolutely awful, I'm so sorry. Whitby is one of my favourite places.

[@Loweredexpectationss]

‘ tory regeneration ‘ LOL y’all made me laugh all the way over in canada with that chunk of taurus excretes

[@kryoboy2.074]

"Taurus excretes" 😂😂👍 Spot on. Glad I live in Scotland the water is lovely here🤭

[@rafski-travels-1984]

What about all the runoff from all the British rivers containing pharmaceuticals from the British public, the antidepressants alone, even the cocaine runoff into the Thames from the toilets affects the wildlife. I gave up fishing in Hartlepool years ago not worth it, you only catch a cold.

[@aarononeal9830]

Chanel 4 needs to talk about Ecosia they are a search engine that plants trees

[@chocolatesugar4434]

This is so sad to see 💔

[@grahamturner1290]

ERGonomics in action. 🧀

[@queersnowflake]

Disgusting

[@Roblstar]

The Tees was one of the most polluted rivers in the country. I can understand that there is pressure to keep it open, plus as a major port it needs to be kept open. I can also understand an attitude to try to slowly release this polution in a dilluted manner? Never a perfect solution! But I can see the thought process. However, as the Tees was well known to be highly polluted in the past! There should have been more awareness, & accountability! To not consider, what was in the river bed, that could be ruinous? Is totally unnaceptable! Taking this sort of attitude with a less polluted river would be more understandable? People just want to get things done... But considering the Tees past... There is no excuse for the clearly short sighted, & unresponsible manner, in which this has been approached! Those diebacks will take a long time to recover!

[@charlesflouvat1829]

That's the fish and chip shops out of business 🙄

[@californiadreamin8423]

My local fish shop uses cod from Iceland, because North Sea cod is not white. Now we know why.

[@billysuter]

Pollution is one thing bit how long you think humans can pull untold billions of animals from the sea unchecked with no consequence? How long before there's nothing left.

[@aivhanncalaquian2301]

Yes it can - don't despair!

[@guff9567]

All you have to do is fine the dredgers

[@bambikeswick6053]

Watching this in sydney .I'm North East born and bread.very sad...I loved going to Whitby with my mum for fish and chips.how awful.😑

[@jamiekenleyuk]

Interested in this myself! thanks for bringing some attention to this.

[@roberthiggins6401]

If this was any one else other than government they'd have the book thrown at them! The untouchables!

[@deeps2169]

TEESSIDE VT / ALEX THOMSON

[@bendaniel2271]

They're still deciding on a title

[@phillipgreen-pe9wg]

This criminal activity is happening nation wide. I remember back in the 1970s when some activists dumped some sand from sellafield beach onto the steps of 10 Downing street after government assurances that the beach was totally safe for kid's to play. How did they remove it? Men wearing anti radiation suits like those worn while dealing with dangerously high levels of radiation. Has anyone ever seen the size of the seagulls around that area? They're massive. Scary day's ahead.

[@vitocorleone7040]

Please a working class opposition (Not Tory lite Keir Starmer’s Labour) who cares for its people and the world around them is needed so desperately right now in the U.K.

[@californiadreamin8423]

What do you mean by working class ?

[@melindabraun6060]

it's needed everywhere dear, everywhere!

[@ghjgjihjgjyrdrgydsgr137]

Totally agree that we need it, but a little bit of Tory lite is how to get elected. They can't help if they're out of power. A whole Labour conference sang God Save the King together, weird but they did it to show that they are patriots. Making this clear plays really well with swing voters, who are finally learning that while the Tories say they're proud of the country and want to conserve it, what they do is sell it out from under us, like this video shows.

[@jeffsuter344]

@Vito Corleone. ANYBODY would be better than the Conservatives. The first aim should to oust them by tactical voting. Vote for whoever has a chance of winning the constituency. Labour, LibDem, Green. Hold your nose and vote locally. We do NOT vote for a Prime Minister, we vote for a constituency MP. Starmer is better than Truss. If you only vote for poltical purity and ideology we will be under the Tory jackboot forever. Because of people like you, Left Wing activists and puritans. You have to appeal to the broad electorate, not a militant minority. That is why Corbyn failed, he concentrated on the extremists, not the majority of the British electorate. People like you will relegate Labour to permanent Opposition unless you buck your ideas up and become practical and pragmatic.

[@HOLLASOUNDS]

What an absolute disgrace.

[@richardtuxford1812]

🤢🤮 this is horrendous.

[@NeilJ894]

If algae blooms are occuring on the coast and even if they are the cause of the issues as the gov is suggesting that's not a reason to do nothing. Nutrient in run off and sediment dumping will be massively feeding those and it's a serious problem that needs addressing in its own right, as well as the chemical pollution attached to sediment

[@budape]

so fuking sad :{

[@electro1622]

LOL.. I'm surprised they haven't blamed Russia for their gross incompetence.

[@Facts_Are_Facts_Are_Facts]

Just stop pollution.

[@chevyyyyyyy]

Water creatures are dying of loneliness from overfishing.

[@MyKharli]

Defra is a sick joke .

[@outlaweduk]

oooh defra destroyed every flock roaming around, use to be maff i remember them, murdered all farmers flocks

[@didierlemoine6771]

they wanted to cut red tapes they did it with sewage !

[@donttrip8282]

Guess who made it easier for water ways to get polluted and harder for polluters to be monitored/regulated? That's right, Liz Truss when she was the relevant secretary of state. She has a reverse Midas touch.

[@peterdurnien9084]

Has anyone else thought that it might be submarine sonar?

[@jamiecurran3544]

Absolutely disgusting!🤨🤢🤮, Stop pollution n safe Mother Earth she's crying out in pain as are we the people!😭💜✌

[@w.d.g.]

sounds like fantasy will finally die to reality.

[@jackking5567]

The sea is a cheap tip. Just like it's used as a cheap tip for sewer wastes.

[@bereal6590]

Incredibly sad, for the people and wildlife. Be glad to throw all the tories in the sea and save the wildlife. This is criminal and disgusting. Sea algae my asse!!!! Would any ding at believe that!?

[@proyouservicesltd3652]

Nuclear waste pollution!

[@guff9567]

DEFRA should deposit their own waste on Whitehall, not at sea

[@naeemsamadi6295]

#stopHazaraGenocide in Afghanistan 🇦🇫

[@johnhall9250]

Couple of things, the first one being when the port opens pollution will go up and the main one being they just don't care as when we have left the EU there is n one to hold them accountable and the government well they are in London this doesn't affect them, so they don't care either, just so long as they are making money, screw the country.

[@the-selfish-meme7585]

Thompson has done a few things right over the last couple of years. Good on you!

[@hoggybhoy1967]

Something smells fishy to me.

[@catmandont100]

too many people .....AGAIN.

[@jennyaskswhy]

This is local news done right. So dad to think fishing might come to an end!

[@loo7784]

Stop the dredging

[@williamnomates1456]

A tory parable.

[@MrCacaindahouse]

humans forget that we grow together with this CREATURES !!! Disgusting, everytime !!!

[@lukeseven8155]

More depressing news

[@josephbacon7493]

Honestly I have no faith in this country it’s the embarrassment of the world. Liz wants to frack your garden. The rivers are full of sewage, the sea is full of toxins and the tories blame Algae. 😢

[@danielazad4421]

When you use plastic for everything. When you use dangerous chemical for cleaning products. Soon it will be the people's turn

[@Derlei]

razor clams are delicious. sad to see massive die off.

[@johnhounslow-robinson9294]

Every thing is dead on the beaches of Tasmania too. NOBODY WANTS TO KNOW.

[@RobertRobinson-dy3rj]

Sand dredging kills marine life 😢

[@martinabcbeers]

Sewage discharge daily

[@rff6866]

Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

[@james4299]

Where the boats park is kills everything go to boat park place and check the water I swim near boat and the water is gross if I was a fish I would not like to swim in it to

[@neverforgetneverforgive9916]

Probably the wef

[@mrhead8175]

waits for someone to blame russia

[@thedudeabides5201]

You mean Labour

[@allegrabarreto4050]

Err the sewage?

[@johntchb]

WTF shameful sad sinful, most likely for a profit.

[@EGF1000]

truss in a previous role cut monitoring to save a relatively small amount of money

[@mkmrys]

Thames Water Ltd

[@nigellapaul6787]

Turbines " turbines turbines

[@geoffhackett6509]

Time to lift the penalty's for environmental vandalism and ban people from the government watch dog who don't do there job. Give the jobs to people who care and stop the almighty Dollar rule the brain dead business men who will do any thing to make a buck.

[@bambikeswick6053]

Bred sori!

[@eddouglas]

Probably Corbyn or immigrants or summat 👀

[@TheWebstaff]

Well there we go, it must be safe to dump at sea, unless it costs us to much not to dump it. In which case, look it's a mermaid over there! Look look.

[@paulsofronia2389]

Nuclear waste

[@deneskovacs6220]

Putin?

[@jonathanrussell594]

Biden 2024🇺🇸

[@adamhall5024]

100% humans are responsible

[@edthoreum7625]

antiNatalism is the solution,,,

[@King.Mark.]

taught the same

[@888ssss]

Boredom ?

[@TheNotthediver]

Crocodiles

[@FLIPMODE630]

Leaving the Eu and the tories they have had enough like the rest of us

[@dijahtrump694]

LOVE AND LIGHT...#WHOISBOBBY?...#WHOISFOODNETWORKWINNER?..#WHOISRACHAEL?...J.

[@phillyblunts1644]

Maby fukushima has a massive impact still leaking into the sea 10 years later...

[@chrissofpv3017]

Brexit deregulation!...water companies opening the sluices to save money.Thank God I have lots of water companies shares🤗🤣