Kildare woman Katelyn Hegarty-Kelly has always felt the ocean was where she was supposed to be, which led her down the somewhat uncommon path of marine biology in Ireland.

The 26-year-old is currently stationed in the Maldives, where she has been working her 'dream' job for three years: restoring coral reefs.

Ireland and the Maldives are oceans away (literally), so just how did this young woman from Kilcullen wind up where she is today? 'I feel like wildlife and marine life have always been very much integrated into our childhood, despite being from Kildare, because that always seems to confuse people quite a lot,' Katelyn says, laughing, citing her dad's love for National Geographic and the family holidays they'd take.

'I had my first scuba dive with my dad when we were on holidays [in Denmark] one year,' she recalls.

'It was actually in an aquarium setting; it wasn't in the open ocean.

'There were loads of baby sharks and different kinds of animals; I just fell in love with it.

Now, every time I'm dealing with guests and I see people doing their first dive, whether they're an adult or a young kid, I'm like, "You're going to get addicted.

I hope you have the best time."' 'Guests?', you might query.

Katelyn clarifies: 'I'm a marine biologist based at the Sheraton's Maldives resort.

I work for a company called Reefscapers.

'We're not international; we only work in the Maldives.

And what we do is we partner with hotels, like resort islands in the Maldives, to restore the coral reefs around the island and bring awareness to and revive the reef.

'I'm based at this hotel trying to build and grow and restore the reef around the particular island,' Katelyn explains.

'So, mainly our work is coral restoration.

We're constantly planting corals, minding them, cleaning them, and making sure they're healthy.

'Another huge aspect of the job is the hospitality side of it, because we're based in a hotel.

We always talk about how people need to take action for our oceans, but it all stems back to, if they don't understand what they need to protect, then they'll take no action.' That's where Katelyn and her team of marine biologists come in.

'We are really strong believers in the power of education and awareness.' It's hard to fathom the marine biology pipeline from Ireland to the Maldives.

'I just fell in love with it.

I remember being so close [to the animals], but also respecting marine life and understanding them,' Katelyn says.

And so, it was a no-brainer for Katelyn to seek out a degree in Marine Biology from Galway's ATU.

At that time, she also had her scuba diving licence under her belt.

It was just before the COVID-19 lockdown that Katelyn began her training, which was being conducted in Dublin once a week.

She was travelling inter-county, but when the lockdown struck, she was confined to Kildare.

So determined she was to get her scuba licence, Katelyn actually relocated to the capital for a few weeks, staying with some family, and finished her scuba diving course.

'I can't drive a car, but I can scuba dive!' Katelyn laughs.

'For my particular fieldwork, the requirements are that you're a very confident swimmer and confident free diver.

'I haven't done a qualification for free diving, but it's something that you're expected to be confident in doing.' Katelyn explains that she 'got so lucky' to land her dream job with just her degree and scuba diving licence under her belt.

'The basic requirement is they'd be looking for people who have a marine biology degree or equivalent; we've had people through to marine biology from geography, zoology, conservation, ocean science.

It's a broad spectrum.' 'I was....