A film on the importance of blue carbon has been released by the government.

Coastal ecosystems of mangroves, tidal washes and seagrass meadows provide a number of benefits that are essential for climate change adaptation.

These ecosystems store significant amounts of coastal blue carbon from the atmosphere and ocean.

The Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture is in the midst of a three-year project to explore how it can help in the fight against climate change.

Its 10-minute film showcases what the project is for and explains what blue carbon is.

Blue carbon project officers Jacqui Keenan and Rowan Henthorn explained that the film is worth watching as it shows why blue carbon is so important in the island.

Ms Keenan said: ‘It shows what we’re doing this year but also the potential it has to help the Isle of Man reach its net zero target and to help address climate change.

communicate

‘It will help us communicate what we’re doing not only with the community on the Isle of Man but also with people all over the world.

‘As a climate change project we don’t necessarily want to be jetting all over to go to conferences. This is something we can share really easily to say what we’re doing in the Isle of Man within the larger scientific community who are working on blue carbon.

‘It is a growing area of science so we really want to make sure it is known that the Isle of Man is building on its history of marine science.’

Miss Henthorn added: ‘You look over the top of the ocean and you just see this huge expanse of water and it’s hard to picture what’s under there.

‘Blue carbon is an even further off concept of that, you can’t even see it if you looked under there, so we wanted to create a video that shows how valuable our seas are and highlighted all the amazing things we can do for us in terms of biodiversity and climate crisis.

‘The film explains what blue carbon is, it shows people how it links in with our fishing industry and other marine conservation, and how we need to manage our seas in a really holistic and inclusive way to maximise benefits.’

They explained that it also affects the Manx economy.

Miss Henthorn said: ‘Now more than ever businesses are starting to understand that caring about the environment isn’t just an add-on, it’s a fundamental part of being a responsible business.

‘Businesses want sustainable projects to get involved with. This project lends itself really well to showing how businesses, fishermen and scientists can all work together to create environmental good.’

Ms Keenan said that blue carbon is just one ‘piece of the puzzle’, adding: ‘It’s what we’re focused on in our project but in reaching net zero it’s going to be all hands on deck.

‘We’re going to need to reduce emissions, change the way we live for the positive, and use technology, but we’re also going to need to work with blue carbon and its natural resources.

‘Blue carbon is one of the nature-based solutions where we can work with nature but it can also help us in our journey to net zero at the same time as encouraging biodiversity and combating the climate crisis.’

The next steps following the film are to make a bid to do another two-year project, where the team will make a management plan for the island’s territorial seas to help maximise the blue carbon.

‘We’ve also got a really long history of marine science in the Isle of Man,’ said Miss Henthorn. ‘A lot of amazing research came out of the Marine Biological Centre and the Isle of Man is actually a centre for marine science all over the world. Many people have connections here in the marine science world to the Isle of Man, so it’s showing how that legacy gives us the perfect lead in to this project.

‘We were already in really good standing to do some innovative, pioneering work. It’s about telling that story and showing how it makes perfect sense for us to be doing more of this in the future.’

Search ‘Sleih ny Marrey – People of the Sea: A blue carbon journey’ on the government’s YouTube to watch.