Image description: A Harbor seal lounges at Nantucket National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts.

Photo by Amanda Boyd, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Image description: A group of puffins at Maine Coastal Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

Photo from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region

Image description: Tech. Sgt. John Mascolo and his military working dog, Ajax, wait for a helicopter pickup outside of Iraq in 2006. Ajax is wearing “doggles” to prevent sand and debris from getting in his eyes. 

Photo by Pfc. William Servinski II, U.S. Army

Image description: Two masked boobys stand on the backs of resting sea turtles on the shore of Trig Island, French Frigate Shoals, part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii.

The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is the single largest conservation area under the U.S. flag, and one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world. It encompasses 139,797 square miles of the Pacific Ocean - an area larger than all the country’s national parks combined.

The extensive coral reefs found there are home to over 7,000 marine species, one quarter of which are found only in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Many of the islands and shallow water environments are important habitats for rare species such as the threatened green turtle and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Photo by Mark Sully of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Image description: A loggerhead sea turtle hatchling makes the arduous journey to the ocean on Blackbeard Island National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia. The island provides protection for several endangered and threatened species, such as loggerheads, American bald eagles, and American alligators.

Photo by Becky Skiba, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.