Thousands of dead sea creatures mysteriously wash up on UK beaches

As the world continues to grapple with the issues of global warming, climate change and impending resultant food scarcity, a new development in the UK has come to worsen the fears of global citizens as sea creatures, known for resilience, began to wash up dead in their thousands.

UK’s popular newspaper, Mirror, has this week reported that a “massive numbers of sea creatures have suddenly started to wash up on some North East beaches” of UK “with the mystery leading to see if there is a link to pollution”.

The Mirror said “dead and living crabs, lobsters and many different species of crustaceans have been found on the beach between Marske and Saltburn in Teesside with piles that are “waist deep” in some cases”.

“They have also been washed up in Seaton Carew and further North at Seaham, reported TeessideLive .
The Environment Agency confirmed on Monday it has launched an investigation into the occurrence and looking at whether a pollution incident is to blame.

The newspaper quoted a Marske resident Sharon Bell, whom it said “walks the stretch of beach near her home every day, said the numbers of creatures have steadily increased over the past two weeks, describing it as the worst case she has ever seen”.

The newspaper Ms Bell was out early on Monday morning taking a picture the daybreak with her husbande, Christopher, when they they beheld a horrifying sight of all the sea creatures washed up on shores of the beach.

Mirror said the couple spent the next four hours attempting to return live ones to the sea.

“I have been along my usual walk from Marske to Saltburn and 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,” Mirror reporter quoted Mrs Bell.

“I have never seen anything like this.

“My husband and I have spent hours putting as many live ones as we could back in the sea, 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.”

The couple said they had lived near the beach for 21 years and “has never seen anything like the scene there on Monday morning – even after a rough high tide or a storm”.

“It was just awful to see. It has been building up over the last couple of weeks but I have never seen anything like that. It was so deep in some parts and piled that high.”

The Mirror contacted the spokesman of an environmental agency, TeessideLive, on Monday and officials there said they are assuming whether a pollution incident might be linked to the dead of the sea creatures.

“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,” an unnamed spokesman for the Environment Agency told Mirror

“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 told Mirror that he is “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.

“My thanks to the Environment Agency and CEFAS for their investigations so far.”

Redcar residents have also taken to social media to voice their concerns after images of the scene of the beach were posted on Monday morning.

“This awful wildlife getting killed. This needs investigating. What is going on along north coast?” said one resident.

“This is awful someone must be held responsible, if it is killing our wildlife then it could kill humans as well,” said another.

A phone number has been set up for people to report any incidents of pollution they might see.

“If you are aware of pollution affecting wildlife, please report it to the Environment Agency on 0800 807060,” added the EA spokesman.