The Bermuda Turtle Project, which has been studying and tagging turtles in Bermuda's waters, will be celebrating its 40th year with a public lecture and ten days of tagging field trips.

Dr. David Owens, who is an associate dean of graduate studies at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, will give a public talk, "The Secret Sex Life of Sea Turtles", at the Aquarium Hall, BAMZ, tonight at 7 p.m.

He will also be participating in the ten days of turtle field trips to perform endoscopy procedures on some of the captured animals. His work will help generate new data on turtles' reproductive organs for the BTP.

Also making up the crew on the trips will be Bermuda Zoological Society (BZS) scientists and six invited representatives from the Caribbean and Central America will be tagging in various turtle habitats around Bermuda until August 15.

Mark Outerbridge, a BZS marine biologist and Bermuda Turtle Project Coordinator, said the past 40 years have been a success. "Bermuda is an important area in the western Atlantic region for these animals, and we are proud to be partners with other conservation groups in efforts to protect them.

"We are celebrating 40 years of this very successful programme. The data we generate during our field trips and by using tags and transmitters has tremendous value in finding out more about these turtles and learning where they go next."

During these field trips each year, more than 200 juvenile green and hawksbill turtles are caught and tagged in the programme which is jointly funded by the Bermuda Government, Chevron International, the Caribbean Conservation Corporation (CCC), BZS and its US-based affiliate, the Atlantic Conservation Partnership.

Some of these turtles are also fastened with satellite transmitters.

All the information gathered is vitally important to scientists to learn more about sea turtles and their regional migrations.

For the past 13 years, the Bermuda Turtle Project has also offered biology and conservation of sea turtles courses for 106 students from Bermuda, the Caribbean, Canada, India, the Netherlands, UK, US, Central and South America.

Foreign participants in the BTP programme learn about sea turtles during the annual ten-day field trips and often return to set up similar conservation and research efforts in their home countries.

The project includes a Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre run out of the Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo. Hundreds of sick and stranded turtles including those injured by motorboats, nets and fishing line have been rescued and brought to the centre, and many have been rehabilitated and returned to the wild, added Mr. Outerbridge.

To find out more about the Bermuda Turtle Project, visit www.cccturtle.org/bermuda/index2.