Despite absolutely TORRENTIAL rain on the day, a marvellous band of 23 volunteers and a dog named 'Aussie' turned out to pick up garbage from the beach at South Sound on Grand Cayman.

Don Foster's Dive Cayman decided to organize the beach clean-up in support of Project Aware's 'Debris Month of Action' and hoped to remove a substantial proportion of the garbage on the beach before the autumn storms swept it back into the sea, polluting the marine environment.

An AWESOME 249lbs of mixed garbage was removed from the beach, consisting mostly of small pieces of plastic and styrofoam, plastic bags and bottles, and ropes. By far the most unexpected and unusual item of the day, however, was a flourescent light bulb!

Photos of the rainy day can be found in our image gallery showing our surprisingly cheery volunteers (despite the conditions), which consisted of: children from one of the George Town schools with their Principal and a couple of teachers; local residents; divers and would-be divers; and 'Aussie' the dog.