The NE Fishing Collective are looking for answers

Aim

Your funding will support a community-led campaign for independent scientific research to uncover the cause of the mass crustacean die-offs

🦞 Our catch vanished overnight. The questions remain. Support us, the North East Fishing Collective to find the answers we deserve🦞

🦞 Our story has been told in Jeanie Finlay's acclaimed feature documentary All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea.

🦞 OUR STORY TOLD IN THE FILM

The North-East of England, where the river meets the sea. Stan Rennie is the last of a long line of fishermen who have worked the same stretch of coastline for centuries. 

In 2021 a vast tide of poisoned crabs and lobsters washes ashore like a biblical plague. For fishing families and the coastal community it is heartbreaking and terrifying. Catches collapsed. Livelihoods that had passed down through families for generations suddenly had no future.

Life along the coast is turned upside-down overnight, and Stan finds himself thrown into a battle for the future. Have the sins of the industrial past come back to haunt the present?

A wry, David and Goliath story about navigating through grief and finding power in community.

🦞 A film by Teessider Jeanie Finlay

Your funding will support independent scientific research to further uncover the cause of the North East coast die-offs and help prevent future environmental disasters. 

We don't want anyone to be confronted again by the heartbreaking scenes of mass-ecocide we witnessed in October 2021

The film has elicited strong reactions from audiences - with many asking: What can they do to help? This is where you come in.

🦞 The film is not the end of our story

Years on, amid indifference from those in power, the cause of the die-offs has never been fully explained. And those most affected  - the fishing families, and the wildlife have too often been left out of the conversation.

🦞 We need your help to restore our coastline and support our communities.

Liz Truss will receive £100,000 a year, for the rest of her life for her office of the ex-prime minister for just 45 days in office. One year of that income, would be monumental for our community-led campaign and we aim to raise this symbolic amount, with your support.

🦞 Who we are

Fisherman Stan Rennie. Photo: Jeanie Finlay

The North East Fishing Collective was formed to find the truth and fight for our coast.

We are not a faceless organisation. We are the people who know these waters best: commercial fishing families, recreational water users, marine scientists and environmentalists, all from the North East. We came together after the die-off because we refused to accept that nothing could be done.

We are co-chaired by Stan Rennie (above) - a Hartlepool fisherman from a long line of fishermen and Joe Redfern (below), who combines a commercial fishing background with a marine science training. 

Fisherman Joe Redfern. Photo: Furbellow & co

Our environmental research is led by Dr Simon Gibbon, a retired industrial chemist, through the North East Marine Research Group.

We know this coast better than anyone else. We care about this coast more than anyone else.

🦞 This isn't history - it's still happening

Veteran Seal Conservationist Dr Sue Wilson, shown in All River Spill... protecting the seals of the Tees Estuary.

This is not a problem that has gone away. Seals are still dying along our coast, and more deaths are expected in 2026. Independent testing has found troubling levels of pollutants in the marine environment. The questions we have been asking since 2021 have still not been properly answered.

That's why our work continues and why it matters now.

🦞 We get results - when we say we hold decision-makers to account, we mean it.

Dr Simon Gibbon. Photo: BBC

In 2025, The North East Fishing Collective brought a legal challenge against the Marine Management Organisation over a 10-year dredging licence for the River Tees. We won. The MMO accepted that the licence had been granted unlawfully, and it was sent back for proper scrutiny, with a full re-determination required before any new licence can be granted.

That is what a small, determined, community-led group can achieve. Imagine what we can do with you behind us.

🦞 Our vision

We want a North East coast that is alive again, where the marine environment is healthy, where fishing families can make a living with confidence, and where the people who depend on the sea are listened to, not ignored.

We believe that takes three things: honest science, real accountability, and a community strong enough to stand its ground. That's what we're building.

🦞 How your money will be used

Every pound you give goes directly into protecting our coast. Your support will help us:

• Fund independent scientific research into what is harming our marine life, so decisions are based on evidence, not assumption.
• Continue the investigations that official bodies have left unfinished.
• Take further legal action to hold decision-makers to account and protect the marine environment.
• Keep a rapid-response reserve, so that if another die-off strikes, we can get scientists and samples on the scene immediately - before the evidence is lost.

That last point matters more than people realise. When a die-off happens, the window to gather evidence is tiny. Having funds ready to move could be the difference between answers and another unexplained tragedy.

🦞 Be part of the story

Our fight shown in All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea, a documentary by acclaimed Teesside film-maker Jeanie Finlay, follows Stan's David-and-Goliath battle and is coming to cinemas in October 2026.

The story is still being written - and you can be part of it.

Please donate what you can. Share this page with everyone who loves our coast. Watch the film and Tell your friends. Together, we can find the truth, protect our marine life, and give our fishing communities the future they deserve. THANK YOU!

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 15th September 2026 at 5:19pm