'Lobsters with silt overcoats' - Meet our dirty neighbours!

While the Isle of Man wrestles to avoid polluting the Irish Sea some of our neighbours it seems couldn't care less - read on:

The Isle of Man government and specifically its DOI have got themselves in something of a pickle over how/where to dispose of a few thousand tonnes of toxic waste that accumulates in Peel Marina.

We already have a dump full of this silt at Poortown (near Peel) and there were promises not least to the local authorities that this would be removed in five years - the clock is ticking.

Very sensibly the IOM government do not want to just tip spoil in the marine ecosystem of the Irish Sea.

However it has to be asked if as a small nation with limited resources we play fair in terms of the environment whilst are neighbours are more cavalier.

The UK discharges from Sellafield are of course legendary - albeit in recent years very much curtailed However other recent large projects in both Ireland and the UK will see sizeable accumulations of waste deposited in the Irish (and Celtic Seas).

Ireland is well on its way to constructing a major cruise ship terminal in Dublin Port and this involves the dumping of up to 10 million tonnes of spoil. Meanwhile recent reports on dredging of Dublin referred to shellfish with silt overcoats (links):

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/lobsters-and-crabs-walking-a...

Spoil from Dublin has some toxicity from Industrial plants on the Liffey but nowhere near as horrendous as what our other neighbour to the East plan to displace.

The latest ‘eco-horror’ from the UK government is the plan to dump 200,000 (some claims say 300,000) tonnes off South Wales and given tidal flow from the Bristol to St George's Channel there’s moe than an odds on chance some of this pollutant will enter the Irish/Celtic Seas (link):

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/hundreds-thousands-tonnes-...

It puts the Isle of Man government’s concern not to dispose of a couple of thousand tonnes of waste into the marine environment in a positive perspective - it's just a shame our neighbours were not as responsible.

Image: Large Dutch suction dredger