A mysterious die-off of crustaceans on the north-east coast of England was probably caused by industrial pollution, according to a new study, contradicting the findings from a government report
.started washing up along the Tees estuary on the North Yorkshire coast and then further south in the fishing town of Whitby. The UK’s Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs launched an investigation into the deaths in December 2021.
in June that they feared their businesses would fail due to a dramatic fall in catch numbers this year.found that no single, consistent causative factor behind the deaths could be identified. But the report pointed to a rapid increase in the population of algae, known as an algal bloom, identified in the region using satellite imagery.
“It’s not consistent with the patterns of mortality that you normally see with algal blooms,” says Bothwell. “It doesn’t normally preferentially affect crabs.” He says algal blooms aren’t always toxic to marine life and that the toxins found in the crabs weren’t commonly associated with the blooms. Bothwell says it is unclear how exactly pyridine accumulates in the systems of crustaceans. He also says the high levels of pyridine don’t necessarily mean that the chemical killed the crabs and lobsters. “Pyridine could be a marker of something else,” he says. “There could be a number of factors combining here.”The source of high levels of pyridine in the water is unclear, but Bothwell says there are industrial plants in the region that produce pyridine, which could be responsible.