Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to protect marine environments in the UK from harmful algae bloom.

Harmful algal blooms are a naturally occurring phenomenon, and while it is rare to see impacts on the scale of the recent crustacean mortality incident in the North East, they have been implicated in mass mortality events previously. Monitoring of factors such as sea temperature can help to predict favourable conditions for the formation of algal blooms. We cannot entirely prevent them, but Cefas can and does monitor their impact.