Spotlight on Mr. Kent Leslie

Mr. Kent Leslie has been the Station Manager of the Oceanic Society Blackbird Field Station for the past 8 years. Mr. Kent, a native Belizean, overseas the day-to-day operation at the field station and brings over 50 years of work experience and local knowledge to this position. He has been on outer reefs of Belize ever since he was a boy visiting his uncle who was the lighthouse keeper at Half Moon Caye. Mr. Kent’s father was a merchant mariner and the young man would jump at any opportunity to accompany his father with his first open ocean experience being a voyage from Savannah, Georgia to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. These collective experiences had a strong influence on Mr. Kent’s formative years.

When watching Mr. Kent at the helm of the R/V Oceanica, one sees a strong sense of focus and connection to the ocean as he continually studies both water and sky. He has an uncanny sense of navigation without the use of modern instruments such as GPS. In fact, it was Mr. Kent who led the crew of Jacques Yves Cousteau’s Calypso to the Blue Hole to film a documentary which transformed recreational diving in Belize. At that time, Mr. Kent was running charters to the Blue Hole from Belize City when he was approached by the Calypso crew who were seeking safe passage for their famed research vessel. Mr. Kent provided maps and led them to the Blue Hole but never got any credit nor has he ever seen that episode of JYC’s Underwater World. When I asked about him about a much circulated rumor regarding the Calypso crew’s use of explosives to open up the entrance to the Blue Hole, he said this simply was not true although there may have been some contact with the reef by their mooring lines.

It is interesting to listen to Mr. Kent reminisce about how things used to be on the Belizean reefs. He says that the Blue Hole used to be filled with larger grouper and aggregations of lemon sharks. Additionally, there were many large fish such as jewfish (goliath grouper) throughout the cayes which simply are not seen anymore, and that there has been a lot of fishing pressure from both Belizeans and fisherman from neighboring countries. He said there was also a time when the oil companies were mapping potential petroleum deposits which included detonating high explosives in the water. This apparently caused massive fish kills and eventually the people had to put a stop to this. In retrospect, it is important to realize that people do have the power to put a stop to such activities that they know are wrong.

Field Station Update

This blog entry comes from Half Moon Caye at Lighthouse Reef where the beach is so scenic one easily feels as if they are living within a postcard. Our snorkeling group is taking a lunch break after exploring the world famous Blue Hole where we all enjoyed viewing a great variety of very large fish. There were so many French, queen and gray angelfish what one guest said they felt as if they were in heaven. On Half Moon, many of our guests enjoyed viewing the Majestic Frigatebird and Red-Footed Booby rookery from an observation platform above the ziricote canopy. Even the snorkel off Half Moon’s beach offered intrigue with an abundance of nurse sharks and rays.

This glorious day offered me the first reflective moment over the past several weeks. Back at the Blackbird Field Station, we have been working with many groups which included coral reef monitoring and dolphin research as well as other Blackbird Caye and Lighthouse Reef snorkeling trips, the latter of which offers a wonderful snorkeling experience with an educational component. Somehow we also managed to monitor permanent seagrass transects for SeagrassNet.

A cornerstone of this season’s program was a visit to Turneffe Atoll by the energetic and visionary scientist Dr. Sylvia Earle. Dr. Earle views Turneffe Atoll and the greater Mesoamerican Barrier Reef (MABR) as a "Hope Site" since she considers it to be a critical habitat within a threatened ecosystem. Her dream of spearheading the establishment of new marine protected areas was honored with a 2009 Technology, Entertainment and Development Award, more commonly known as the TED. TED recipients garner considerable support and resources to help fulfill their dreams and the dream of Her Deepness is simply ocean conservation.

During Dr. Earle’s presentations, she laid out a strong case for why a fish is worth more alive on the reef than dead on a dinner plate when considering the ecological services they provide and the economics of ecotourism. Her motivation was infectious as she clearly stated that if human societies have the power to alter and degrade the environment, then we also have this same power to protect and restore ecosystems on a global scale. She also presented some interesting work by the Deep Search Foundation regarding their whale shark conservation efforts in Holbox, Mexico.

There have also been some interesting scientific observations at the field station. We have localized a long-spined sea urchin (Diadema antillarum) spawning aggregation and observed 2 afternoon spawning events. As one would expect, there is very little macroalgae at this site which prevents settlement of coral larvae and can out compete established coral colonies. Further, there was an abundance of crustose coralline algae with provides settlement cues for coral larvae as well as cements together reef structure. This indeed offers hope that this spawning aggregation will help reseed the MABR with this critical reef herbivores.

We have also seen black blotches on many reef fishes around Turneffe Atoll. These blotches appear to eventually form blisters which then rupture and form lesions. The cause of this condition is unknown as are their effects on fish survival. Thus far, we have seen these blotches on snappers, jacks, grunts, and surgeonfish.

With your continued support, the Ocean Society can continue its conservation efforts in Turneffe Atoll which also include upcoming crocodile and manatee studies.


Video clip of reef fish at the Aquarium snorkel site in Bogue Bay:


Video clip of long-spined sea urchins acting a fish nursery:


Video clip of hogfish, a reef fish surveyed in reef monitoring:

Mayan connections to the sea

This blog entry comes from the Maya Mountains of Belize which is filled with breathtaking beauty where I have been perusing exploratory studies in what I like to call comparative ethno-ecology. For many years I have worked cooperatively with traditional indigenous peoples around the world from the Tiwi of Australia to the Valley of Mexico to the Pacific NW. Human Ecology has been at the heart of this work in terms of practices of sustainability, decision making processes regarding future generations balanced with commercial development objectives, and the relationship of people to their immediate environment and the cosmos. Through this work, it has become apparent to me that no one culture holds the answers to my questions yet all hold pieces of a larger puzzle. However, through these studies, I have gained valuable insight into ecological cycles and ecosystem connectivity.

While on travels to Tikal, Caracol and Cehal Pech (relatively easy access from Belize City), we met many people who clearly demonstrated that the Mayan peoples are still alive and some we spoke with still hold tradition knowledge of traditional medicine and cultural intricacies. At the archeological sites we saw evidence of the connections of these inland sites to the sea, the most readily apparent of which was amongst the burial regalia of a so-called Mayan king at Tikal. The regalia was adorned with ~16 lbs. of jade beads (reportedly their most precious stone) and large scallop shells, many of which still contained rows of the fragile external processes rarely seen by beachcombing shell collectors. Further, a wide variety of sea shell and coral fragment beadwork were noted amongst these sites, some of which dated to 700 B.C.

Pictographs at the Tikal museum also documented the existence of a Mayan Fishery although no navigable waters were noted in close proximity to the center of this site. It was also interesting to note a much replicated pictograph of another Mayan king on his journey to the spirit world where a fish is one of the animal effigies rowing the long canoe. None of this information came as a great surprise since I’ve seen tropical conch shell horns and macaw feathers at an archeological site in Ohio or Mayan style ball courts in Puerto Rico; however, finding validation for suspected connections is always a pleasant outcome.