Five giant beach clean sea life-inspired structures have now been installed in coastal locations around the Isle of Man.

The ‘Fill a Fish’ sculptures have been created as part of a Suntera Global initiative to encourage the disposal of plastic waste, which can be collected within the sculptures.

They have now been placed close to beaches and given names – Magnus the Seal in Castletown, Bottle Barry the Basking Shark in Douglas, Sammy Perkin in Peel, Munchy Mackerel in Port Erin, and Cleo the Rockstar Fish in Ramsey.

The sculptures were all designed by children from local primary schools, with five different sea creatures being chosen from over 600 entries.

Designs were brought to life by Darren Jackson and Stephanie Quayle from Farmyard Studio.

The winning designs were created by Alexandra Lledo-Mulvey from Peel Clothworkers School, Caleb Crellin from Anagh Coar Primary School, Finlo Stanford from Scoill Phurt Le Moirrey, Imogen Crennell from Bunscoill Rhumsaa, and Nicole Astell-Burt from The Buchan School.

Mark Reynolds, chief operating officer at Suntera Global, said: ‘This initiative is a real community effort which we hope will have a significant and measurable impact on our island coastlines.

‘After seeing the effort put in by so many people to make this initiative such a success, including the schoolchildren, the artists, our charity partners and our staff at Suntera Global, it is wonderful to see the sculptures now in place in their new homes around the island.’

The project was undertaken with two local charities – Beach Buddies, a charity that organises litter picking across the island, and Isle Listen, which focuses on mental health.

Bill Dale, founder of Beach Buddies, said: ‘Around eight million tonnes of plastic ends up in oceans around the world each year, and in the Isle of Man alone around half of all litter found on our beaches is single-use plastics.

‘We need to change that and it’s been fantastic to work with Suntera Global on this initiative to provide islanders and visitors to our beautiful island with such a creative solution aimed at protecting our natural environment.’

Isle Listen chief executive Andrea Chambers added: ‘This project is about more than the environment. It’s also about wellbeing, which ties in with what Isle Listen does with schools.’