Thousands of people took the opportunity to find out more about life in the seas around the Isle of Man at the weekend.

The Festival of the Sea, organised by the Manx Wildlife Trust, gave people the chance to take a closer look at the wide variety of colourful and fascinating sea life that exists in the waters around us. Many were given the chance to hold familiar creatures, such as starfish, scallops, crabs and find out more about the brightly coloured sea slugs and the unusual sea mouse.

Other creatures on display were a range of fish, including a couple of dogfish, or cat sharks, as they have recently been renamed.

The festival of the sea was held at the site of the former marine laboratory on Port Erin promenade and Lara Howe, the marine officer with the Manx Wildlife Trust, said that the event was one of the best marine festivals they have held there.

’In all the years we’ve been holding the festival at Port Erin, this was undoubtedly the best year yet,’ said Lara.

’We estimate that we had around 5,000 people come through the doors.

’It went really well and we had a lot of very positive comments from people, along with some brilliant feedback. All the people who came through really seemed to enjoy it and get a lot of out it.

’It gave people a great opportunity to find out about what goes on in the seas around us and it seemed to grab people’s attention.

’The scallops always go down well and this year people seemed to be very interested in the starfish. We had a around 10 species this year and I think people like seeing so many different types of creatures such as them.

’The marine mega tanks, which housed the exhibits, were manned by experts from the wildlife trust, enthusiastic volunteers and also by some highly-knowledgeable young wildlife enthusiasts, some as young as 10 years old, who help to point out the different species of crabs and were full of interesting facts about the creatures on display.

’We had help from between 40 and 50 volunteers this year, including some young children, said Lara.

’Having kids help with the tanks is a great way of engaging with other young children who may rather talk with them rather than just have an adult talk to them.

’They see them talking about the exhibits and they think that if they can do it, maybe I could too and that can encourage them to find out more and get involved in the future.’