But the eggs were taken to the Bermuda Fisheries Division where they were hatched, and the turtles nurtured to their present size.

It is the first time turtles have been hatched and reared from eggs in Bermuda, marking a rare occurrence of loggerhead turtles in local waters.

The three loggerheads were released into Ferry Reach off a small beach on Coney Island by Mrs. Shirk, her three-year-old son Eric, and Aquarium staff.

On July 22, 1990, Mrs. Shirk was a lifeguard for the US Naval Air Station, on Clearwater Beach on Coopers Island.

She discovered the large group of eggs at the southern end of the beach.

Aquarium staff found some 87 eggs altogether.

Bermuda Zoological Society's Critter Talk newsletter reported in Autumn, 1990: "The site had already proven to be a successful nesting beach with the hatching of green turtle eggs from Devil's Hole in the summer of 1988.

"Judging from the eggs' size it was thought they were those of the hawksbill.

However, on the morning of August 31, to our great excitement and surprise, a hatchling loggerhead turtle was found scurrying around the exhibit beach.'' In the following three days, two more hatchlings emerged.

The report added: "The real significance of this event is the fact that this is the first positive documentation of turtles nesting on Bermuda since the early 1930s and the first confirmed nesting of loggerhead turtles on Bermuda.'' The Aquarium's head aquarist Ms Jennifer Gray said the find was probably a one-off with the mother, or mothers, drifting away from normal nesting sites.

Mrs. Shirk has visited the turtles every couple of months to watch them grow.

So it was only natural that she should be invited to Coney Island to help in their release.

Accompanied by son Eric, who was born soon after the eggs were found, Mrs.

Shirk watched the three turtles enter the sea -- a slightly larger proposition than the tank they have been used to for the first four years of their lives.