Kayla’s unusual life at Dry Tortugas National Park:

• Dry Tortugas National Park is located 70 miles west of Key West, FL • It contains Fort Jefferson, the largest brick building in the Western Hemisphere!

• In the 1800’s, all trade using the Mississippi Riverpassed by the park’s waters• An enemy country could easily shut-down trade tothe colonies if they took control of these waters• Therefore, the US constructed the fort to keep enemies out of the colonies and protect trade

•The park consists of 100 square miles of water and seven small islands• I live in the fort on Garden Key

There are two ways to get to the park… By sea, or…

…by air

Though most tourists visit on one of two ferries.

Supplies arrive via our park service cutter,the M/V Fort Jefferson

Where they are then moved via forklift or helicopter

A moat wall protects the fort from big waves

And no moat is complete without a crocodile!

The park’s a small city: We make water, generateelectricity, and even have an employee spa (thesewage plant. Mmmmm)

As rain water drips through the bricks, stalactites and stalagmitesform just like in caves

With no city lights for 70 miles, the stars are spectacular. Shoothing stars are seen nightly

The ocean is on the other side of my bedroom window…

• I have a cool job• I SCUBA dive to studyfish, corals, seagrass, sea urchins, andeven shipwrecks.• I also study seaturtles, birds, and plants

I even rescued an adult sea turtle named Wham.She was attacked by a shark and needed our help.

We caught Wham, put her in a big box, …

Loaded her on the back of one of the ferries…

And took her for a boat ride to Key West…

Wham

Where the Turtle Hospital ambulance picked her up

Wham underwent surgery at the hospital and three months later…

She was brought back out to the fort and released!

• Prior to the shark attack,scientists put a tag on Whamthat lets everyone knowwhere she is. To see whereshe is now, click here• To see a video of her release, click here

• In addition to savingWham, I also monitorsea turtle nesting.• Sea turtles crawl up the beach to lay nests• Daily, I walk along beaches looking for “turtle crawls”

I follow the tracks looking for piles of sandthat form the turtle nests.

I always take newpeople along and do a wacky “turtledance” to show themhow the turtles make their nests…

• After the nests hatch,My friends and Idig up the nest torescue any babies that got stuck.• We move HUGEamounts of sand…

Usually we only find one or two babies, but sometimes,we find dozens!

We release the babies, and they quickly scurry to the ocean

Meet Pedro…

• I also catch older turtles to study them.• We paint them like dice so we can tell them apart.

We have an abundance of beautiful boobies. They’re always seen in pairs, and we see brown boobies most often in the summer.

We also have about 30,000 birds that nest at the park. These birds have no predators and therefore, no fears.You can catch them easily with bare hands…

Frigatebirds have a wingspan of seven feet…Yet they weigh less than two pounds!

We have MILLIONS and MILLIONS of hermit crabs….

The dark areas in the water above are corals. The parkhas the best coral reefs in the Western Hemisphere!

We have fish that weigh as much as four people combined!

Highschoolers in Denver study these fish via a livewebcam under our dock. Visit teens4oceans.org

Our moat has THOUSANDS of upside down jellyfish

I catch, pet, and tag mating nurse sharks!

I participate in underwater photo-shoots…

And my boyfriend and I dive on shipwrecks to study them

Spectacular sunsets are seen from the fort

Loggerhead Key has a lighthouse built in the early 1800’s

And finally, my boyfriend, Chris, and my kitten, Calie!Aren’t they cute?