The marine environment of the Isle of Man is subject to impacts from a wide range of activities including fishing, shipping, effluent disposal, recreation, tourism and the deployment of cables and pipelines. Although the usage of the marine environment in Isle of Man territorial waters is much lower than in some areas of the UK, there is still a requirement for strict regulation of activities in order to maintain the quality of the marine environment. This, however, must maintain a balance with the requirement for development and growth in order.

 

This requirement to control activities in the marine environment has therefore resulted in a growing amount of legislation. This has tended to develop within particular sectors of industry, for example fisheries, offshore mineral extraction, coastal development and shipping. Although this ensures that there is strict control over these individual activities this has the potential to result in gaps in legislation where new activities or spin-off activities develop.

 

In addition legislation must take account of a number of layers of legislation with certain components of international, European, UK applied to some activities. Isle of Man legislation also takes the form of Acts of Tynwald, which within them can allow for the development of Regulations, Bye-laws or Orders by the relevant Department.

 

The system results in large quantities of legislation of which, in some cases, only parts will apply to the marine environment. Identifying the mechanisms for legislation in relation to the marine environment means that opportunities for taking a more holistic approach to nature conservation in the marine environment may be identified.