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A human-chain protest will take place on the North East beaches that were covered with tens of thousands of sea life corpses in October last year and earlier this year.
The action will take place on Sunday 28 August. The protest will gather at 11am to form the human chain at 11.30am. A drone will film the chain and the crowds waving. Demonstrators are asked to visit any beach from Berwick to Scarborough. The main locations will be Saltburn, Marske, Redcar/Majuba and South Gare.
An investigation led by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) concluded that the culprit for the mass die-off was an algal bloom.
The local fishermen among others were sceptical about Defra’s findings. A report commissioned by the Whitby Fishermen’s Association stressed the high levels of the organic chemical pyridine found in the crab corpses – up to 74 times the level in crabs in Cornwall. Pyridine has been used in chemical processing on the Tees.
Dredging
The protest organisers blame dredging on the Tees and river mouth for disturbing toxic riverbed sediment and dumping it into the sea. PD Ports, responsible for dredging the Tees, denies it was doing anything other than routine work.
Dredging is due to intensify in September in preparation for the new Teesside Freeport. The protest organisers say that “two million tonnes are to be dredged imminently from the South Bank quay”.
The demonstration
The demonstration is demanding a reopened, independent investigation into the marine deaths; a halt to dredging while the new research is conducted; and an overhaul of national dredging legislation including sampling, analysis, and disposal at sea.
The demonstration is organised by the Facebook group Reclaim Our Sea.
There will be a Twitter and Facebook storm at the same time, using the hashtag #wavetosaveoursea.
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