MORE than 1,000 fish have died in a Guisborough beck after a sewage tank overflowed.

All life along a 4.5km stretch of Howl Beck has been wiped out, just three years after it was restocked with fish following another pollution incident.

More than 1,000 brown trout, several hundred eels, stone loach, bullhead, minnow and stickleback have died after a Northumbrian Water sewage tank overflowed.

The liquid untreated sewage discharged into the watercourse for more than 14 hours on Wednesday of last week, polluting a stretch of the beck as far as Tockett's Mill.

Northumbrian Water had contacted the Environment Agency to inform them that the flow of sewage had been diverted into the tanks while emergency repairs were carried out elsewhere.

Environment Agency officers were on the scene within an hour of the accident occurring, but it was too late for the majority of fish.

"This is a tragic and unnecessary loss of life," said the agency's environment management team leader, Darren Starkey.

"It is a situation which could have been avoided and we will be exploring all possible options in the wake of this accident.

"The situation has been compounded by the fact that Howl Beck was restocked as recently as September 2000 following another serious pollution incident, where a farmer discharged pig slurry into the watercourse. Now, all that work has gone to waste and we're back to square one."

He explained that it would take time for the beck to recover, as the sewage removed oxygen from the water, which killed the fish.

Redcar and Cleveland environment health officers have been notified of the incident as Howl Beck ultimately discharges into the North Sea at Saltburn, which is a designated bathing beach.