Hi there! My name is Garrett Fundakowski and I am the 2016 Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society National Park Service Research Intern!

This summer I have been given the opportunity to travel the country to live, work, and dive alongside leading underwater archaeologists, photographers, and research scientists in our nation’s National Parks. Thank you to both the Our World-Underwater Scholarship Society and the Submerged Resources Center for their overwhelming generosity in putting together and funding this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Last Saturday, following a late night filled with packing and repacking and triple-checking my lists, my parents dropped me off at the Philadelphia airport to send me on my way. I was both excited and nervous to start my journey! To kick off the non-stop summer of adventures, I spent my first week at the SRC office in Denver, Colorado.

I landed in Denver Saturday evening and stayed the night with my friend Abby and her family. To make sure I really hit the ground running (pun intended), I joined Abby and her father for the Stadium Stampede 5K run along the Platte River in downtown Denver bright and early on Sunday morning before heading over to meet up with Jessica Keller, an Archaeologist for the SRC and my gracious host for the week.

After settling in, Jessica and I quickly got acquainted and bonded as we watched the epic season finale of Game of Thrones. The next day we carpooled to the office, where I was given my visitor’s badge and a tour of the facility. As the remaining SRC crew entered the office, I was greeted with warm smiles and friendly faces; it wasn’t long before I was joking around with everyone else. Since everyone had just gotten back from various projects and this was one of the only times everyone would be in the same place all summer, Dave Conlin, Chief of the SRC, gathered the staff for a meeting to debrief the most recent projects and discuss the travel schedule for the group for the next few months. It was fascinating to see how the whole operation works from the inside.

After the meeting, I sat down with Brett Seymour, Photographer and Deputy Chief of the SRC, and laid out my own schedule for the summer. This summer, my travels will take me from St. Croix to Hawaii, Florida to California, and even as far out as American Samoa! Having only ever dove in the Caribbean, I am extremely excited to head out to the Pacific later this summer and be exposed to an entirely new ocean and its fauna.

The following day, Jessica and I spent all morning at Presbyterian/St. Luke’s Hospital. In order to dive with the NPS, I need to acquire a Blue Card. The Blue Card is the NPS’s diving certification and it not only requires passing a written test and demonstrating physical fitness and diving skills in the water (which were scheduled for later in the week with Brett), but also visiting a hyperbaric doctor for a dive physical to ensure their divers are in tip-top shape before getting in the water. After squeezing me in for a last-minute appointment, Dr. Clem cleared me to dive barring my results from the required medical assessments were normal. I managed to get a chest x-ray, blood work, and an ECG done at P/SL in one day, with my audiology appointment scheduled for the following afternoon, earning myself the “record” for the fastest intern dive physical.

The remaining hours of the day were spent in the dive locker with Brett, pulling gear for my summer travels. In the past, some interns have visited places where colder waters necessitated packing a dry suit, but as I won’t be venturing too far north, I will only need a standard wetsuit. We fit me out with a wetsuit, a shortie, rashguards, booties, gloves, swim trunks, and a BCD, as well as a variety of SRC apparel that will serve as my uniform for the next few months.

That night the SRC had their annual summer barbeque. Steve Sellers, the National Dive Safety Officer, and his family graciously had the entire office over for a delicious potluck dinner. Not even a little light shower could stop the SRC crew from firing up the grill and laughing around the table.

Aside from that, the rest of the week went smoothly. I was a bit nervous for the Blue Card test, but being a former swimmer of 13 years has given me a calm disposition in the water and helped me complete even the daunting “ditch-and-don” skill. In fact, my previous swimming experience really came out when Jessica took me to Underwater Hockey practice. After a quick orientation to the rules and a couple rounds of observation, I joined in on the chaotic mess at the bottom of the pool. Admittedly I committed a couple fouls, but I managed to shimmy my way to the puck and score a few points by the end. And I was playing alongside some of the men and women who have competed for the National Team, so I consider it an accomplishment to have scored a goal or two. Overall, it was a ton of fun and I would definitely do it again!

When Saturday finally rolled around, I had some time to explore the rolling hills of Colorado and go on a hike before my flight left the following morning. I hiked up Green Mountain just down the road from the SRC office and it provided a breathtaking view of the city in the distance. A spectacular way to end my stay in Denver!

The next morning, Dave dropped me off at the airport and I was on my way to St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands to work at Buck Island National Monument!

Thank you to the entire SRC staff for being so warm and welcoming! You invited me into your homes, let me stay on your couch, took time out of your day to teach me new software, had me over to join in on board game night, talked to me about my future career plans, introduced me to your family, assisted me in the process of arranging travel, and tailored my journey to fit my personal career goals. Without you, this internship would not be possible. Once again, I am thrilled to have been given this opportunity and am amazed at how willing each of you are to help me on my journey to discover my passion. I hope I make you all proud!

Traveling light with Brett

After a long car ride from Biscayne National Park to Key West on a rainy Saturday in late July, Brett Seymour and I met up with the m/v Fort Jefferson, the Dry Tortugas National Park (DRTO) support and research vessel. Aboard the Fort Jefferson was Dave Conlin, who had just returned from 3 weeks in the DRTO. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Dave the next morning. The Fort Jefferson was set to depart in the morning on July 27^th, so we had just one day to gather all the groceries we would need to resupply the rest of the SRC staff out at DRTO for the next 3 weeks.

It’s hard to tell in this image, but just the groceries alone took up the massive bed of the SRC’s truck. That’s a lot of food – despite what kind of boxes the grocery store gave us.

The Fort Jefferson, DRTO’s support vessel. DRTO relies on the Ft. Jeff to bring in supplies like food, gasoline and diesel from Key West.

After meeting up with legendary archeologists Jim Bradford and Volunteer Extraordinaire Jim Koza, we took an entire day to gather all of our supplies and to double check that we had everything we would need to live in the remote reaches of Garden Key for the next 3 weeks. Key West is the furthest south you can drive on the East Coast, and in order to get to DRTO you either need to take a boat or a seaplane 70 miles to the west into the Gulf of Mexico. Throughout the summer I had heard many rumors and tails of DRTO, and I was very much looking forward to visiting the historic Fort Jefferson (the actual fort on Garden Key). DRTO is my last expedition for the summer, and I fully planned to make the most of it.

Ever since the Europeans colonized North America, the Dry Tortugas have been an incredibly important piece of maritime history. Sitting at the confluence of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, shipping traffic to and from the Gulf had to pass through the Tortugas, or swing far to the south and east. Because of the shifting keys, ever changing winds and shallow coral reefs, the Tortugas are home to an incredible wealth of cultural resources, mainly shipwrecks. In 1846 the United States started the construction of a hexagonal fort on Garden Key; some 16 million bricks make up the stunning Fort Jefferson. Though the fort was never technically completed, it still stands as a testament to military construction and ingenuity. Not to mention master masonry.

A little insight into a day in the life at Crew’s Quarter. Clockwise from top: Bert’s message board detailing the day’s activities, chore schedule and the dinner menu; the bunkroom, with complimentary plastic canopies to keep ceiling debris from falling on you; Bert at the all purpose dining table/work bench mapping a site; Koza pauses briefly after working on a detailed site map.

During our stay at DRTO we lived within the walls of the fort, in a casemate retrofitted with a kitchen, dorm room style bunks, a bathroom and even air conditioning. A luxury that the men and women stationed at the fort never enjoyed. 9 of the project staff would call the Crew’s Quarters home, while the others stayed in the Engineer’s apartments, or on the Fort Jefferson. The majority of the Submerged Resources Center was present at the fort, mounting a large maritime archeology inventory and documentation. It was great to be reunited with them after having spent the summer traveling across the Park Service.

DRTO works with a skeleton crew; mainly a few biotechs and cultural resource staff, law enforcement rangers that rotate on and off the island and a couple maintenance personnel which are responsible for keeping everything running. The bulk of the island’s population are the visitors to Garden Key that arrive and depart on the daily ferry from Key West. Though a few campers occasionally spend the night in the campground in front of the fort. With little running water and electricity, and almost no Internet, (for staff only) DRTO is considered one of the Park Service’s best-kept secrets. I knew I would fall in love with this place even before I arrived, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw once the Fort Jefferson was tied up at her dock. The fort looms over a moat, connected to the rest of the key via a wooden bridge that takes visitors through the sally port, under the walls of the fort and into the parade ground. Stepping into the fort is like stepping into a medieval castle. This place would be my home for the next two weeks, and already I was bustling with excitement.

The next day I jumped on the survey boat with a few of the crew from the SRC. This is how anomalies are found, by towing a magnetometer behind a boat. Whenever the mag picks up a pulse, its position is marked on a map. Eventually we would get to jump some of the anomalies we picked up when “towing the fish”.

Volunteer Dylan Hardenberg and I prepare to launch the magnetometer off of the back of the SRC’s research vessel Cal Cummings. Photo credit to Susanna Pershern

The crews already out at DRTO had been there for some 3 weeks, and were more than happy to welcome new faces to their group. After a day of mag surveys, the last for the summer, I spent my days either jumping anomalies or helping out with some of the photo-documentation work Brett Seymour and Susanna Pershern, the SRC’s other photographer, were working on. In between photographing new sites, and some of the sites from previous surveys, Brett has been working on a new 3D photogrammetry technique for mapping sites. By swimming in a spiral around a fixed object, like a shipwreck, and taking pictures in a continuous stream, Brett generated 100% optical coverage of the object. After uploading the images into special software, sometimes more than a 1000 images, he is able to generate an interactive 3D image. It takes a lot of work, and a lot of swimming, but the models Brett is able to generate have huge implications for the future of cultural resource management and interpretation.

It would appear as though fish aren’t the only organisms attracted to DRTO’s cultural resources. Photo credit to Brett Seymour

Brett Seymour prepares for another dive documenting some of DRTO’s cultural resources while archeologist Jim Koza waits in the warm water.

Of course, while jumping anomalies and investigating shipwrecks, I couldn’t help but notice the abundance of flora and fauna covering the reefs of DRTO. Because of the Dry Tortugas’ remoteness, many large fish species that are absent or rare in the Florida Keys are thriving in the Park Service’s protected waters. Once commercially important fish, like goliath groupers, are all but gone from the Keys. But 4 or 5 of these monstrous fish lurk just under the dock where the Fort Jefferson ties up. And all of the intact shipwrecks we visited provide important habitat and structure for reef dwelling organisms. The natural resources of these waters are partially what attracted what are now considered cultural resources. And these cultural resources now attract said natural resources.

Due to DRTO’s remoteness, and the schedule we stuck to, it was easy to fall into a comfortable rhythm. After that first day on the survey boat, we pretty much spent every day after in the water surveying sites, jumping anomalies and documenting artifacts. Aside from being blown out by weather a couple of times, we were far from dry in the Dry Tortugas.

In between working with the archeologists, I was also able to squeeze in some time with the natural resource team. I walked the beaches of the remote East Key looking at turtle nesting sites, and even went on a night dive with a team looking at coral spawning events. With all the beauty of DRTO above and below the water, there wasn’t any time to be bored. It was honestly refreshing to live without certain modern obligations, like the Internet and cell phones. Though I was very appreciative to have air conditioning in our living quarters. Fort Jefferson is essentially a gigantic brick oven; “dry days” inside the fort were almost unbearable.

Although the teams were split between the two dive boats during the day, we all gathered in the evenings for a communal meal. Brett Seymour’s wife, Elizabeth, prepared dinner for the 13 of us every night, and I know everyone was incredibly appreciative. In order to keep things harmonious, everyone was assigned to a daily chore rotation. After a day of diving under the hot tropical sun, sweeping the floor or filling scuba cylinders wasn’t too bad if that was all you had to do.

Another look at the Windjammer’s prow. The dive conditions at DRTO were absolutely incredible.

All in all DRTO was more than I could have ever hoped for. Working and living with such a dedicated team of professionals was an incredible learning experience. And the memories I have from living in the fort, and from this entire summer, will stick with me for a long time. I’d really like to thank everyone from the SRC and SEAC for putting up with me during those two weeks. And even though my background is in marine biology, not maritime archeology, I learned more than I thought I could about cultural resources.

The members of expedition DRTO-SRC-0188 gather in front of Fort Jefferson’s welcome sign. From left to right: Dylan Hardenberg, David Morgan, Jeneva Wright, Susanna Pershern, Jess Keller, Charlie Sproul, Bert Ho, Koza, Jim Bradford, Brett Seymour, Elizabeth Seymour, and Cameron and Chase Seymour.

As I watched the sun set from atop the three story fort, I reflected on my experiences this summer. After a quick seaplane flight back to Key West, I’m off to give my final report in Washington D.C. Looks like I’ll be trading out a wetsuit for something a little more formal.

Thanks for reading.

I have to admit, DRTO made me more than a little trigger-happy. Everywhere you look, any time of day, there was something to catch the eye.

On some days we jumped up to 6 anomalies; the backwards roll is the preferred method of watery entry off of the Park Service’s boats.

After 2 eventful weeks in the USVI, I found myself back in South Florida at Biscayne National Park. It might sound odd, returning to BISC felt like the closest thing to coming home. Although this has been an experience of a lifetime, as soon as I feel acquainted with a particular Park, I’m already off to somewhere new. After bouncing from Park to Park all summer, it was good to see some familiar faces.

With so many different projects going on at BISC it wasn’t hard for me to find a way to be useful. Because I had already spent my previous two weeks at BISC working with natural resources, I decided to try my hand at exploring some of the Park’s cultural resources. As it happens, one of the interns I was staying with, Maddie Roth, would be “jumping anomalies” all week with an undergraduate volunteer from a local University. I figured I would lend a hand to see if I couldn’t learn a thing or two.

Often times the weather in the South Atlantic can turn without a moment’s notice. It wasn’t uncommon for a squall to blow through, leaving calm water and sunny skies in its wake.

Because of Biscayne Bay’s rich maritime history, and potential navigation hazards, the Park and outlying waters are teeming with cultural resources. From sunken ATONS to shipwrecks, and artifacts from the last couple of centuries, there’s a lot to explore. However, the Park covers a lot of area, so looking for submerged resources is kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack. Every so often the Park Service tows a magnetometer behind a boat, which helps locate magnetic anomalies. The coordinates are recorded and cataloged with reports from recreational divers of potential sites.

After an anomaly is found, it must be thoroughly documented. Aside from drawings and photographs, measurements must be recorded as well. Here Maddie prepares to take the length and width of an anomaly found amongst soft coral.

Our task for the week was to dive on some these anomalies by using reports from previous surveys. We’d pull up to a given area, and read off of the report sheet something to the effect of, “divers previously reported 7 metal pipes. In 2001 divers searched for 15min and could not locate said pipes.” So we’d drop anchor and scour the coral rubble or seagrass looking for the pipes. Or “metal pins” or “potential coal box”. Searching for a relatively obscure object in 10ft of water through seagrass or rubble or sand isn’t exactly the most exciting task. But it makes finding something of interest all the more remarkable.

Most of the more interesting sites have already been well documented, so the interns tend to get handed the less desirable locations. However, on our first day we found a submerged ATON from the mid 19^th century, and even a potential wreck! Mind you the “wreck” was a collection of wooden boards with metal pins scattered throughout 15ft of seagrass. Some salvager, the bane of the Cultural Resources team, had used a powered dredge to remove the seagrass around one of the wooden boards. Seeing nothing of interest to sell on the market they left the site alone. The amount of knowledge gained from continuous surveys of sites like this far outweighs the potential monetary gain from pillaging these cultural resources.

Rob Warra, of the South Florida Caribbean Monitoring Network invited me to dive with him one day. Unfortunately our day was cut short when some equipment flooded.

For the rest of the week we spent our days diving in various parts of the bay, hoping to find more potential sites. On some dives we got skunked, and couldn’t find much of anything. However, occasionally we would find something of interest. Because my background is mainly in natural resources, seeing first hand how cultural resources are documented and managed was certainly interesting. Plus, Maddie and Austin’s enthusiasm for the cultural resources found in the Park is infectious. We were also optimistic about finding new wrecks, which are certainly still lurking in BISC, waiting to be uncovered so their stories can be told again.

I’d like to thank Maddie Roth and Austin, Maddie’s intern, for putting up with me and answering all of my questions about underwater archaeology. Now I’m heading down to Key West to prepare for the last Park I’ll visit this summer. Dry Tortugas National Park here I come!

Thanks for reading.