Bermuda all year round.

And their studies over the past two weeks have enhanced the Island's reputation as a vitally important area for turtle development.

The team has been diving and tagging turtles during a time of the year when little research has previously been carried out.

It has been an ongoing mission to discover the truth about the reptiles, which started in 1968 with the studies of Dr. H. Clay Frick.

Dr. Frick retired in 1991 and donated his nets and tagging equipment to the Aquarium which has been working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Parks and US scientists Professor Peter and Mrs. Anne Meylan.

Over the past two weeks Prof. Meylan and Ms. Jennifer Gray-Cooklin, head aquarist at the Bermuda Aquarium have led the team catching and tagging turtles.

The project's aim is to determine the size of the population of turtles, sex ratio, growth rates, times of occurrence, habitat and migratory patterns. The data will aid in the conservation of the endangered species.

Prof. Meylan said that the importance of the last fortnight was that turtles had never been tagged during the winter months before. Tagging had been done in November and March but never during the colder season.

He said finding turtles meant the project had been a success. The team caught 100, including two when The Royal Gazette came along.

They catch the turtles by looking out for obvious feeding sites and circling the area with a net. The divers then swim out around the net seeking any turtles that have been trapped.

The turtles are taken to the main boat, Calamus , where blood samples are taken, their flippers are tagged and measurements are taken. All catches are made under strict guidelines to stop the turtles suffering any unnecessary pain.

Off Tudor's Bay, Southampton, the team caught two small turtles measuring just over a foot long, weighing four kilos each and probably one to two years old.

However, during one exercise last week they caught 31 turtles in one net.

Ms Gray-Conklin said: "You can see one turtle's head and have no idea how many you are going to catch. We saw two turtles when they came up to breathe and we managed to catch 31.'' Of the 100 turtles caught, 20 had been tagged previously in Bermuda, with one being tagged in Florida. The majority of turtles caught were green turtles common to local waters but two hawkbilled turtles were also caught which is a little higher than usual.

Prof. Meylan stressed that although the catch depends a lot on luck, the Aquarium is able to mobilise an excellent team of divers.

"The turtles we catch can be anything up to 70-75 kilos. We caught one weighing 62 kilos last week.

"We have known for a while that, in terms of life history of turtles in the Atlantic Ocean, Bermuda is a really important place.'' Bermuda was once an important nesting site for the green turtle, but heavy exploitation for food during exploration and settlement of the Americas caused this to collapse by the mid-1800s.

Although some isolated nesting is reported to have continued until the 1920s, Bermuda's waters are filled with visiting turtles.

Prof. Meylan said: "The nesting population has gone and we do not know if it will ever come back. These two turtles could have been born on the beaches of Florida or Costa Rica.'' He said the turtles would have travelled long distances so their birthplace would be uncertain and this was one reason for the studies. Another reason was to see whether the turtles would remain in the area for long periods of time.

One Bermuda turtle has been picked up several number of times over 16 years.

Prof. Meylan will return in May to continue intensive research but tagging will continue twice a month with the Aquarium team.

Analyses of blood will be carried out again at Texas A&M University to help establish sex and study the relationships of the green turtles in the Caribbean and Western Atlantic.

BACK TO THE SEA -- Ms Rachel Johnson sets one of the tagged turtles free.

TEED-OFF MUTED YEAR-OLD TURTLE -- One of the young turtles which was captured, tagged and examined by experts off Bermuda, over the past fortnight.