Whitby fisherman: 'Shellfish stocks very much taking a battering'
They're having to fish further afield
A fisherman from Whitby says they have been catching less shellfish in the last year.
The decrease is being put down to a number of reasons but mainly due to an unknown cause of death of thousands of crabs.
James Cole, who is from Whitby and catches lobsters and crabs, said: "This past year we've seen a downturn in the amount of brown crab that we usually catch. Our catches are down 40 to 60 percent and sometimes the crab catches are down to zero on in-shore grounds and this has all occurred after the major die off that we had.
"It's had a real big impact as we have to fish further afield now. The lobster catches are reasonable thank God but the stocks are very much taking a battering. We would generally catching six to seven fish boxes, 300 kilos a day of brown crab. We're now down to 50 kilos to 100 kilos, which isn't very good.
"The benefits of catching shellfish of course is it's our main stay. It's the only fishery we have so we're totally reliant on it. We're just worried about stocks in future of lobsters.
"We would like to see the dumping of sediment in the Tees and a programme brought in of restocking, growing the environment, putting kelp beds in, more testing to make sure the waters are nice and clean."