The National Liberal Party has urged Government to stop all quarrying in Bermuda in a bid to protect the Island's cave formations.

Vice chairman of the party and environmentalist Graeme Outerbridge said despite a major cave-find a few weeks ago, rock blasting was continuing 200 feet away at Wilkinson Quarry. He said it was a "major exercise in stupidity" and accused the Government of being more interested in meeting the economic interests of the quarry representatives.

He said: "Work at the quarry will eventually come at the expense of a rare ecological find. The time has come to stop quarrying in Bermuda, especially in the Walsingham geologic formation, where so many of our precious caves are located.

"Blasting at the Wilkinson Quarry not only jeopardises this new cave find, but also nearby Admiral's Cave. There has been damage caused to houses in the area that are located further away than the caves in question.

"Large scale importation of aggregate is viable for Bermuda, rather than continued quarrying."

He said the caves held unique creatures that existed only in these underground caves, and if Bermuda allowed the caves to be "unprotected", the Island would lose a valuable precious nature record. And he suggested Wilkinson Quarry remove the huge boulders that were placed around the former Dolphin Quest facility at the Southampton Princess on South Shore, which is now closed.

He added: "We think those boulders will make fine aggregate."

Neither Environment Minister Dennis Lister or curator at the Natural History Museum at Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo Dr. Wolfgang Sterrer were available for comment last night.