Messing with a Bermuda skink could end up costing you $5,000 when new legislation designed to protect endangered species comes into effect.

Parliamentarians passed the Protected Species Act 2003 with little substantive debate yesterday. But while most members of the ruling Progressive Labour Party (PLP) generally referred to the bill as a watershed development, some Opposition members suggested it was merely a housekeeping measure.

And the United Bermuda Party (UBP) urged Government to train enforcement officers and focus on educating the public about the need for conservation as opposed to relying on legislation and questioned why the bill was silent on compensation for those whose land were declared protected under the law.

The bill gives the Environment Minister powers to declare certain species and their habitats (private or public) protected by law and requires the Minister to develop recovery plans for each protected species.

It will require those involved in researching or exhibiting protected species to be licensed - a provision which caused some concern among the UBP's ranks because there is no mechanism of appeal against refusal to grant a licence.

Other provisions make it an offence, punishable with a $5,000 fine or six months in prison, to harm, capture, collect or kill a protected species.

Environment Ministry scientists have already come up with a list of about 50 species - including the Bermuda skink, the Cahow and the Wild Bermuda Pepper - which may end up being protected, said Minister Dennis Lister.

Mr. Lister described the Cahow, which numbered close to one million, as "the flagship for conservation in Bermuda".

"A classic island species it (once) had no experience of predators and showed no fear of man or beast," he said.

"Unfortunately, it is reportedly a tasty bird and was taken in huge numbers for food by man and his introduced mammal predators. By 1621, a scant 12 years after man arrived, the species was believed to be extinct."

In fact there were only 18 pairs remaining when the Cahow was rediscovered in 1951, he continued, but it is now benefiting from a recovery plan.

Mr. Lister acknowledged that there was existing legislation aimed at protecting the natural heritage but said the bill went further in key areas and went a long way to ensure that Bermuda could live up to international conservation standards by a target date of Spring 2004.

"During our reviews of existing legislation to safeguard native and endemic species and their habitats it became clear that until now, there has been no legislation protecting any of Bermuda's terrestrial species other than birds," he said.

"For instance, it is somewhat embarrassing that the Bermuda Skink, a species listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, is afforded no protection in Bermuda. This is a situation that must be remedied and this Bill will achieve that as well as protection for other species in danger of extinction."