Tim Deere-Jones, a pollution researcher and consultant for over 30 years, was asked to investigate the incidents by Whitby Fishermen's Association. A Freedom of Information request to the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs revealed some crab samples were found to have concentrations of the chemical pyridine 70 times over the expected level. Deere-Jones said, "The Environment Agency must have analysed for several hundred different chemicals, most of which were there in .0-something quantities, some of which were in quantities up to the tens, but what really stood out was pyridine, which was present up to 450-plus. Apart from being astonished that nobody picked up that this one chemical was there in such quantities, I was astonished that nobody suggested that there be further work." Marine infrastructure which sits in the water is treated with pyridine to reduce corrosion, and the chemical is also released as an industrial waste product. One crab sample from Saltburn was found to contain 439mg per kg of pyridine, and 203mg per kg was found in a sample tested from Seaton. A control sample from Cornwall showed levels of 5.9mg per kg. Deere-Jones challenged the Defra conclusion, saying, "There was marine algae out there but it wasn't really what you'd call a bloom, and nobody took any samples to prove it was a lethal algal bloom."
