Section 06 - UKOTCF

Conservation” evening classes over the past year
and they have been very well received and there
is a lot more interest in developing open access
marine education opportunities further. A great advantage
of such classes is that it is a dialogue and
the tutor constantly learns from the class as they all
bring diverse marine experience.
Figure 14. Cool Seas Roadshow visits Isle of Man school
promoting marine environmental education since
2004. The Division has run a regular public lecture
series, promoted visits of the Cool Seas Roadshow
(life-size marine animals such as basking sharks
and associated interpretation – Fig 14) to primary
schools and run training courses on a variety of
marine topics. The Division is also working with
the Department of Education to incorporate more
marine education into the Manx curriculum. In the
Isle of Man there is now a tailor-made Manx curriculum
in some subject areas such as history but
the Manx marine environment is not yet formally
incorporated into the curriculum.
There is the need for more Manx marine and
coastal education resources. DAFF and the Department
of Education co-funded the UK Field Studies
Council to produce the Manx Rocky Shore Resources
pack which has been very successful and
helped primary school teachers to get their pupils
doing rocky shore fieldwork.
Sharing experience of how to engage the whole
community in marine conservation will be very
beneficial. Whether it is economic benefits to
convince Government Treasury of the value of our
seas, or linking marine litter to stranded leatherback
turtles to make an impact on teenagers, the
more evidence we can gather collectively, the more
effective we can all be in protecting the marine
environment (Fig 15).
References
Gore, M.A., Rowat, D., Hall, J., Gell, F.R. & Ormond,
R.F. (2008) Transatlantic migration and deep midocean
diving by basking shark. Biology Letters, 4:
395–398.
Government Laboratory. 2007. Marine Monitoring
2007 - General Report. Government Laboratory,
Department of Local Government and the
Environment, Isle of Man Government.
MSPP Consortium. 2006. Marine Spatial Planning Pilot:
Final Report. www.abpmer.net/mspp/
Challenges:
Informing politicians and decision-makers about
the importance and value of the marine environment
is a huge challenge and a priority. Very little
marine education targets these groups but they
often have the most influence on the big issues that
threaten the marine environment. Is this a challenge
elsewhere? How have people addressed it?
Opportunities:
Many resources and ideas exist for improving marine
education provision in schools, and fostering
a sense of wonder in and responsibility for the marine
environment in children is a priority. To ensure
that the wider community understands the need for
active marine conservation I suggest that continuing
or adult education holds great possibilities. I
have run two community “Introduction to Marine
Figure 15. Pollack and kelp in Manx waters. (Photo:
Caroline Perry)
Making the Right Connections: a conference on conservation in UK Overseas Territories, Crown Dependencies and other small island communities, page 208