A record 62 sites have registered to participate in the 27th International Coastal Clean-up (ICC) Day, which is co-ordinated locally by the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET).

Among the 62 sites is JET's 19th annual clean-up, which will be held at Fort Rocky Beach along the Palisadoes strip.

"Every year ICC gets bigger and bigger in Jamaica and 2012 looks to be the biggest yet," said Suzanne Stanley, programme director at JET. "We are excited to have so many groups on board this year, working towards one major goal — tackling the global problem of marine litter."

There are registered clean-ups in every parish this year, and for the first time, the most clean-ups in a single parish will be in Kingston and St Andrew, with nine scheduled to be undertaken. There will also be three underwater clean-ups in addition to a few offshore islands — Maiden Cay, Lime Cay and the Pedro Cays.

The Ocean Conservancy in Texas in the United States started Coastal Clean-up Day in 1985 to raise awareness about marine litter and coastal degradation. Today, 114 countries participate annually.

For 19 years, JET, along with thousands of volunteers, has cleaned various spots along the Palisadoes coastline. Last year, they had more than 1,000 registered volunteers at the Fort Rocky clean-up. The volunteers collected 580 bags of garbage, weighing nearly 6,000 pounds. This contributed to the islandwide total of more than 3,000 bags of garbage weighing over 35,000 pounds collected by over 4,000 volunteers.