Clean-Up Day on Saturday, but that did not prevent "tons'' of garbage being dived up and collected from Bermuda's shoreline.

In just two hours, 80 trash bags full of bottles were retrieved from a 200-square-foot area off Devil's Hole, clean up co-chairman Mr. Alex Outerbridge reported. It is estimated a whopping one million bottles remain, he added.

"If we took a dredger down there for three-four days we would probably take in 30-40 truckloads of bottles,'' Mr. Outerbridge said.

The bottles were mostly beer bottles, he said, with the obviously newer bottles found in the waters just off the wall opposite Devil's Hole Aquarium on Harrington Sound Road.

"The area is literally a bottle dump,'' he said. "The bottom of the ocean floor is at least a foot deep with bottles -- there must be a lot of old ones.'' KBB president Mr. Barry Brewer, who was in charge of the clean-ups at Jews and Riddell's Bays, said everything from bathtubs and bed frames to sewing machines and motorcycles was hauled out of Bermuda's bays and waters off the public wharfs.

And he said there was a lot of debris such as smashed up boats and bits of wood still in the ocean as a result of 1988's Hurricane Emily.

Mr. Brewer said the clean-up showed there was "definitely a shortage'' of dumpsters on public wharfs.

Dozens of plastics, cycle parts and lead-acid car and boat batteries were fetched during dives off the public wharfs, he said.

"The marine environment must really be in better shape as a result of the clean-up,'' Mr. Brewer said. "It was definitely worthwhile.'' About three-four tons of trash -- mostly beer bottles, plastics and engine parts -- was hauled out of Riddell's Bay, he said.

An average of about 10 people participated in the clean-ups at each of the nine selected areas, Mr. Outerbridge said, with the exceptions of Spanish Point which had 200 people from the Bank of Bermuda, Devil's Hole where Lawrence Marine helped, and Mangrove Bay where Sandys Jaycees helped.

"We were hoping for a lot more,'' Mr. Brewer said, adding the wet weather was definitely a deterring factor and the exercise was affected by the absence of the Bermuda Regiment which was dismantling the Bailey Bridge.

"On the positive side, a heck of a lot of stuff was collected, but on the people side it was disappointing,'' he said.

He pointed out the main goal of the exercise was to heighten residents' awareness of the condition of Bermuda's waters.

"We just can't keep trashing our marine environment and land,'' he said.

"The ocean has always been treated as a dumping ground. It's very easy to just throw it overboard and think it's going away somewhere.'' Mr. Brewer added the Island's waters "need a heck of a lot of attention to get them up to scratch''.

Mr. Outerbridge agreed the idea of the exercise was not just to pick up after people. "It's to show people just what is being deposited in our oceans,'' he said.

Mr. Brewer said KBB would be having a review of the clean-up and coming up with some suggestions as a result in due course.

The clean-up was different from the one two years ago in that instead of inviting residents to clean up areas near their homes, they were asked to help out at nine selected "bad spots'': the public wharfs at Mangrove Bay, Evans Bay, Jews Bay, Riddell's Bay, St. David's, plus the waters off Bailey's Bay, Darrell's Wharf ferry stop, Spanish Point, Devonshire Dock and Devil's Hole.

A `DUMPING GROUND' FOR BOTTLES -- KBB marine clean-up co-chairman Mr. Alex Outerbridge dives up a crate full of bottles fetched from the waters off Devil's Hole, where it is estimated a further one million bottles lie.

Pictured helping on the Lawrence Marine barge on Saturday are (from left): Mrs. Sonja Whayman, Mr. Andrew Perry (centre) and Mr. Ron Ross.