Dry Tortugas National Park

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Dry Tortugas
Image:LocMap Dry Tortugas National Park.png
Designation	National Park
Location	Florida, USA
Nearest City	Key West, Florida
Coordinates	24°37′ N 82°52′ W
Area	64,701 acres (262 km²) 26,184 ha
Date of Establishment	October 26, 1992
Visitation	74,576 (2003)
Governing Body	National Park Service
IUCN category	II National Park

Dry Tortugas National Park is a United States National Park, located in the Dry Tortugas islands of the Florida Keys. The park covers 101 mi² (262 km²).

It is famous for abundant sea life, colorful coral reefs and legends of shipwrecks and sunken treasures. The park's centerpiece is Fort Jefferson, a massive but unfinished coastal fortress that was rendered obsolete by the invention of the rifled cannon. The fort was eventually converted into a prison for Union Army deserters and the accomplices implicated in President Abraham Lincoln's assassination. The U.S. Army abandoned the fortress in 1874 and a nearby sooty tern rookery was a favored hunting ground for egg collectors until a wildlife refuge was established in 1908. In 1935 President Franklin Roosevelt designated it Fort Jefferson National Monument, and in 1992 the Dry Tortugas was declared a national park. The islands do not exhibit any standing fresh water or even seasonal streams, hence their name. Owing to the potential difficulties of survival in such conditions one of these islands were used as the location for the filming of a military survival film used to train aircraft personnel.

Image:Fort-Jefferson Dry-Tortugas.jpg

The park is roughly 70 miles or 110 kilometers by boat west of Key West, and plays host to almost 80,000 visitors each year. Activities include snorkeling, picnicking, scuba diving, saltwater fishing and birdwatching.

The most popular bird watching event is the sooty tern gathering, the nesting season on Bush Key between February and September involving an estimated 100,000 terns. Bush Key remains closed to visitors during the nesting season, but bird watchers with binoculars or telephoto lenses can watch the spectacle from Fort Jefferson. Other bird species in the park include noddies, brown pelicans, frigate birds, masked boobies, roseate terns, brown boobies and double-crested cormorants. Image:Submerged artifact at Dry Tortugas NP.jpg