In October 2021, thousands of dead and dying crabs and lobsters washed up along 45 miles (70km) of coastline in north-east England. This mass-mortality event coincided with the redevelopment of one of the UK’s largest ports at Teesside.
At the time, many local environment groups and fishers believed that dredging had released a toxic chemical known as pyridine, an industrial substance thought to have settled in the water’s sediment, resulting in this mass-scale death of crustaceans.
But our recent research outlines why this “pyridine hypothesis” is wrong. It was based on inaccurate and unpublished science, and the theory was propagated through mistrust in government, toxic local politics, and inaccurate media coverage.
