SOS.

It is the international signal of distress, an instantly recognisable beacon for the approach or existence of danger.

Appropriately enough, it is also an abbreviation of Save Open Spaces, the recently revived preservation group whose members -- if its recent exhortations over the controversial Castle Harbour development project and other construction schemes are an indication -- are bracing themselves for "a hell of a fight'' as it attempts to warn Bermudians of a looming "ecological disaster''.

"The cave system (over which the Ship's Hill condominium and shopping complex is being built by Bermuda Properties Ltd.) is the most important on the Island,'' Mr. Ian MacDonald Smith, a well-known photographer and the chairman of SOS, told Community in a recent interview.

"In terms of the area's ecosystem, any alteration to the water that flows through the caves is going to have a detrimental effect. In terms of tourism, they're also going to destroy one of the most scenic first golf holes on the Island through foreshore encroachment.'' As if to say "I told you so,'' construction at Ship's Hill, which was approved in July through a special development order of former Environment Minister and one-time National Trust president Gerald Simons, was temporarily halted last week after it was discovered that Bermuda Properties' use of bulldozers at Castle Harbour had resulted in possible damage to the caves that lie beneath the incline.

That damage, noticed by a Planning Department official during a routine visit to the site, had two important consequences. It prompted new Environment Minister the Hon. Tim Smith to ban bulldozers from the area until a cave survey is completed and served, rather dramatically, as a backdrop for the resurrection of SOS, which was launched in the early 1980s in the face of unprecedented land subdivision and was disbanded at the end of the decade after it successfully engineered a moratorium on subdivision until the Island's first blueprint for development -- the 1992 Bermuda Plan -- was unveiled.

Despite that important success, however, the 1992 plan has also had the unforeseen effect of speeding up the rate of development in areas of the Island zoned as potential development sites, said Mr. MacDonald Smith, who feels the current SOS group, which includes such other notables as photographer Mr. Antoine Hunt, Body Shop manager Mrs. Diana Antonition and businessman-illustrator Mr. Niall Woolf, is now facing an even bigger challenge than its predecessors ever did.

"We are fighting both the big developers and Government,'' said Mr. MacDonald Smith. "As it now stands, there isn't a single environmentalist in Cabinet, which is looking at Bermuda in terms of short-term economic goals and is therefore allowing the developers to act in the short term. It is all extremely frustrating.'' He cited as evidence "short-sighted'' construction projects that currently sit empty on the Island, from the nearly imploded Bermudiana Hotel in Hamilton to the ill-starred former Club Med resort in St. George's.

"Why in Bermuda,'' Mr. MacDonald Smith asked, "are we continuing to build these types of luxury accommodations when that sort of visitor doesn't come to the Island anymore? It simply defies logic.'' At the same time, the chairman of SOS said, Government should be "ashamed'' of itself for failing to buy up and protect the plots of pristine land that have frequently come on the market, including, among other properties, Pokiok Farm, Cemetery Hill and Abbot's Cliff.

"Are you trying to tell me,'' Mr. MacDonald Smith asked of the latter property's current price tag of $2 million, "that a country as rich as Bermuda can't afford that? I really can't see it.'' Nevertheless, successive United Bermuda Party Governments have shown little or no inclination to make such investments in the environment, a reluctance that has prompted SOS to make the buying up of open spaces a primary part of its mandate.

In addition, as well, to creating an "active'' national tree-planting programme, the new SOS will target specific development projects it deems untenable, starting as it has with Ship's Hill (over which the group is presently circulating a petition) and moving next to the proposed further development of the St. George's Club.

Mr. MacDonald Smith said the public can file a pro tem objection against the latter with the Development Applications Board by Friday.

"The silent majority,'' the environmentalist told Community, "has been silent long enough. It is going to be a hell of a fight, and we need the public's support on this. Fence-sitting won't do the environment any good.'' Asked if he was optimistic about SOS' chances for success, Mr. MacDonald Smith added: "So far the response has been good. The petition has been all over the Island.'' "This issue,'' he continued, "is about the morality of our politicians -- what they are prepared to do to protect the environment and to protect Bermuda's citizens.

"As it currently stands, the Environment Ministry should not be called the Ministry for the Environment but the Ministry for Development. It is political prostitution what the politicians have done with the developers, and they should not be allowed to get away with it.'' Mr. Ian MacDonald Smith SAVING IT -- SOS chairman Mr. Ian MacDonald Smith, whose group is protesting plans to turn this woodland hill overlooking Castle Harbour golf course's fourth fairway into a condo complex, claims the issue is "about the morality of our politicians -- what they are prepared to do to protect the environment and to protect Bermuda's citizens''.