Several months ago, three Bermudians were interviewed for the post of General Manager of the new Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute, on East Broadway, however the interviewing panel deemed they were not sufficiently experienced.

An advertisement was then placed in North America and according to Mr. Jack Lightbourn, Vice-Chairman of the Institute's Trustees, there were many replies including one person who "looks extremely useful''.

Work on the $10m project started earlier this year and should be finished by February 1997 and it is hoped the Institute will become internationally important once established.

It will be dedicated to exploration and research of the deep sea and will showcase discoveries about the ocean.

Mr. Lightbourn said the Institute needed someone who had run a similar organisation and not a fresh graduate, but someone who would be a business manager.

"We would like to have found someone local, but the type of person we need does not come around that much. We wanted someone first and foremost who had previous experience of working in such an organisation,'' he added.

He said it was only after the local candidates were interviewed that they went abroad using an agency in America to place the advertisements.

Mr. Lightbourn said there had been a "wonderful response'' and "one person in particular looks extremely useful''.

"I was one of the three people who interviewed the local candidates, but none were what we were looking for,'' added Mr. Lightbourn.