This weekend there is the chance to get up-close with a lobster, touch a starfish and find out just how many colours a sea slug can come in.

The Manx Wildlife Trust is holding a Festival of the Sea this weekend at the end of the Port Erin Promenade, next to the site of the old Marine laboratory, on Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 4pm.

There will be a range of events and activities designed to let people find out more about the marine life that live in the seas around the Isle of Man.

The weekend will feature many sea-themed family activities and games and the ’Wilder Future’ exhibition.

There will also be the ever-popular marine mega tanks, which will be filled with many of the weird and wonderful creatures of the Manx waters.

Dr Lara Howe, the marine officer with the Manx Wildlife Trust hopes that being able to see the range of animals up close will help people understand more about life around the Manx coast.

’It is a weekend event all about what lives in the seas around the island,’ said Lara.

’We want to show as many people the amazing variety of life that exists under the water that people probably don’t have that much of an idea is there.

’It gives people a chance to see some of the wide variety of marine life that lives under the sea that you would only see if you were a diver or went snorkelling.

’People are often under the misapprehension that the sealife around the island, in the Irish Sea, is drab and fairly uninteresting.

’However, that is just not the case. There are so many bright, vivid and colourful creatures out there.

’Our Marine Mega tanks will have lots of starfish and mudibranches, which is a type of sea slug that bares no relation to our black garden slugs.

’These come in all sorts of reds, blues, yellows and are fascinating to see.

’We will also have crabs, lobsters, scallops, queenies, all sorts of shell fish as well as sea hares, and hopefully we will have cat sharks, which were once commonly known as dog fish.’

The exhibits are being humanely caught for the exhibition by Discover Diving, who will go out towards the end of the week and bring back examples of what they find, before returning them safely at the end of the weekend.

Lara believes that such events are a key part of engaging people to help protect and preserve fragile marine environments, both around the island and elsewhere.

’We operate 10 marine reserves off the Manx coast, which is incredible,’ said Lara.

’We are doing way more than other places and we need more people to be on our side, fighting to save and protect the marine life in our seas.

’We want people to help look after the marine environment and the best way of doing that it is to find out more about the life that exists there.’

Tickets for the festival are £2 for adults, £1 for children and £5 for a whole family, available from mwt.im

by Mike Wade

Twitter:@iomnewspapers