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.