A group of 14 volunteers collected more than 2,000 pounds of trash from Bermuda’s waters throughout August.

Karen Plianthos, founder of the Cash Trash Bash campaign, said volunteers ranged in age from 4 to 75 years old.

Their 48 hours of collecting yielded a final tally of 2,028.5lb of rubbish during the month.

One dollar is typically raised for every pound of garbage collected through the campaign, but $3,992.26 was raised through the programme’s GoFundMe page and other donations this year.

These funds will be split evenly between the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and the sustainability focused Anguilla Enhancement Project.

Ms Plianthos said: “I learnt that BIOS offers programmes for children as young as my eight-year-old daughter, so I thought it’s such a phenomenal institution on the island that there’s no reason not to support it because of what it’s doing for our ocean in Bermuda and raising awareness.”

She said the AEP started from one woman asking people to join her during clean-ups, tree planting and other projects throughout Anguilla.

A cheque for $1,996.13 was presented to BIOS on Wednesday and one for the same amount will be given to the AEP in February.

Alex Merkle-Raymond, BIOS science education co-ordinator, said the funds would support the institute’s student summer camps for students.

She said: “Our summer camps are expensive, so this will make sure more Bermudians participate in ocean conservation and marine research and also help fund our field trip and half-day programmes that happen throughout the rest of the school year.”

Ms Plianthos formed Cash Trash Bash in 2015 and hoped to collect more than the 1,768lb of rubbish gathered during the campaign last year.

She explained: “If we can do more than the previous year, it’s amazing, but it’s also sad, because in an ideal world, you want to go somewhere to dive and see no trash — until that day comes, we’re going to still be diving up trash.

“Ultimately, we’re in a situation where we’re advocating behavioural change and getting people to realise that chucking bottles in the ocean, even thought it’s a magical mirror that makes everything disappear underneath, it still has effects and consequences for our environment.”