Year of Our Island begins June’s celebration of our bountiful seas and breath-taking shores with a series of events, guides and activities designed to help you understand more about our seascape and coastline.

There will be plenty of opportunities to get involved - with organised events and a brand new Seas and Shores Guide to help you explore more of our coasts at your own pace. The booklet will be available online at www.ourisland.im as well as from a number of locations around the island, such as the Welcome Centre and public libraries.

June will also see a number of events hosted by Year of Our Island partners.

There will be rock pooling in Port Erin with the Manx Wildlife Trust on Saturday June 9, Seawatch Saturday at the Sound with the Manx Whale and Dolphin Watch on Saturday, June 16 and the ’Big Beach Clean’ on Sunday, June 17 in partnership with Beach Buddies.

In addition to this, there will be a series of movie nights designed to help people explore more of our seas without getting wet.

The three events will be held at venues across the island and will feature guest speakers including Dr Peter Duncan from the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture and Bill Dale of Beach Buddies.

Dr Duncan said: ’The "seas and shores" month in June is about getting out and taking part - the film evenings are a great opportunity to get closer to the wildlife that lives on and under the water whilst keeping you relatively dry!

’Government and its partners conduct a considerable amount of marine research, and we have a lot of underwater videos that we are putting together to help show what goes on beneath the waves.

With summer on its way, the basking sharks will be returning, so we are re-screening "Gentle Giants", a professional documentary on Manx Sharks.

’We also hope to showcase our approach to local fisheries management and explain what has, and will be happening in this area.’

For more information about events in June go to www.ourisland.im, email: [email protected] or call 687007.

by the Year of Our Island Project Team

www.ourisland.im