Untreated sewage was released into designated shellfish waters for 192,000 hours last year, new research has found. The dirty water pouring into English seas was a 20% jump from 159,000 hours in 2022, according to the analysis of Environment Agency data by the Liberal Democrats, shared with Sky News. The number of individual incidents in 2023 reached 23,000, the equivalent of 64 times a day, a slight fall from 24,000 in 2022.
Read more:UK water sports demand clean-up, blaming sewage for illness and event cancellations'Shocking' incidents of sewage spewing into gardens - with disease outbreaks 'very possible' Fishing industry on a 'knife edge' Martin Laity, of Sailors Creek Shellfish, has been catching native oysters from the waters of Cornwall for 34 years.