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The Isle of Man
Ancient Norse and Celtic Kingdom
The Isle of Man is situated in the northern part of the Irish Sea, nearly equidistant from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. It is 53 km long with an area of 572 km2. Its human population is about 76,300. More that 40% of the Island is uninhabited hill land. Off the southern tip is the islet known as the Calf of Man and Snaefell is the highest point, 620 metres
The Island’s many unspoilt habitats support a great diversity of wildlife, from grey seals and basking sharks to the protected lesser mottled grasshopper of Langness. The island is home to many different bird species, including chough, peregrine, long-eared and short-eared owls, puffin and Manx shearwater. Ballaugh Curraghs, a large marshland in the north of the Island, has the biggest hen harrier roost in Western Europe. This reserve and the Calf of Man (on which there is a bird observatory) are among the sites managed by the Manx Museum. The Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry manage the hills and glens, and have designated the Ayres as a National Nature Reserve for its extensive coastal heath, dunes and shoreline with breeding little terns. The other statutory protected site currently is Langness. The Manx Wildlife Trust has 20 reserves across the Island, including the famous orchid meadows at Close Sartfield. The Trust has taken the lead in the production of Biodiversity Action Plans and has commissioned various surveys: coastal, verges and river corridors.
Chough research and regular surveys are undertaken by the Manx Chough Project and the Manx Bird Atlas. The Atlas is a 5-year project to map the Island’s birds. The coastline is rich in marine life which attracts visiting scuba divers.
Basking sharks are regular visitors to island waters. British waters appear to hold one of the largest populations of basking sharks in the world; fortunately these close relatives of the great white shark are entirely harmless plankton feeders. Very little is known about the basking shark - except that they are possibly under threat of extinction as hunting continues. Previously killed for their oil-rich liver, they are now harpooned for their fins; once the tail and fins are cut-off (for shark fin soup) the shark, sometimes still alive, is thrown back into the sea. The basking shark is gradually disappearing from areas where they were previously common. The Basking Shark Society takes visitors out on their boat to see sharks and cetaceans.
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| click images for larger versions |
| The Isle sits within a rich marine ecosystem supporting basking sharks (pictured). Terrestrial ecosystems range from hill-land (Sulby Glen pictured) to coastal heath (The Ayres pictured). Much of these and the intervening agricultural land retains elements of traditional farming methods, important for orchids (pyramidal orchid pictured) and the chough (pictured), a bird now restricted to certain uplands and coastal fringes of Europe. |
| Photographs courtesy of the Isle of Man Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Forestry, Manx Wildlife Trust, Maura Mitchell, Martin Withers |
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