spelled out to Hamilton Rotarians this week.

Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo principal curator Mr. Richard Winchell spoke to Rotarians at the Princess Hotel on Tuesday.

He said Bermuda enacted the first conservation legislation in the New World with an act against the killing of turtles in the 1620s.

"But marine turtles are still endangered today because we didn't know enough about the lifestyle of marine turtles in the 1620s,'' he said. "If we did we would have protected the breeding adults as well. The capture of turtles over 40 pounds was permitted in this century. So few large turtles remained that the capture of all turtles was prohibited in 1973.'' The earliest work to save the green turtle in Bermuda waters was the restocking experiment that ran from 1967 to 1977.

This consisted of 17,000 turtle eggs being flown from Costa Rica to Bermuda and then buried on beaches around the island.

Ten thousand hatchlings were released from those eggs.

"Since 1968, Dr. Henry Clay Frick and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation and the Department of Agricuture, Fisheries and Parks have studied Bermuda's Green turtles in a tagging programme,'' he added.

"From 1968 to 1991 more than 1,000 turtles were weighed, measured and tagged.'' He added: "This project is unique in the length of time and data that has been collected. The need for long term studies is acute, as turtles take 30 or more years to mature and may live as long as 100 years.

"Bermuda is particularly well suited for long term life history studies, because the turtle population is completely protected.'' In 1992, Dr. Frick's study evolved into the Bermuda Turtle Project, a collaborative programme between the Aquarium and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation.

The project was coordinated by head aquarist Ms. Jennifer Gray, who along with the Bermuda Turtle Project staff and volunteers, spends more than 45 days per year tagging, weighing, sexing and tracking marine turtles in Bermuda waters.

Mr. Winchell said the Turtle Project represents one of the longest running studies of immature Green turtles on their foraging grounds.