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Sometimes, a love for the ocean can take you places you've never been, or never thought you would go. For John Halas, it took him to a place he thought he would never see again. John is retiring in March after 31 years as a biologist/manager for Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, a job that has taken him around the world in his tireless quest to protect coral reefs from harm. But the Panama City, Fla., native wasn't always so well-traveled.
"I figured I was lucky to get out of the place in one piece," he says. "I didn't think I would ever see it again." That might have been the case, if not for John's deep, abiding passion for the sea. He had gotten his scuba certification in 1964, when he transferred from a community college to Florida State University, and was determined to get back into diving after the war.
What began as a hobby blossomed into a full-blown obsession, however, when John left his job at an aquaculture firm and applied for a science diver training course offered through Florida's State University System Institute of Oceanography. "[My employers] said, ‘We can't promise there will be a job waiting for you when you get back,'" he recalls. There wasn't, but John didn't care. The demanding program, which involved daily, and sometimes night dives, rigorous physical conditioning, training with U.S. Navy equipment, and saturation in the Hydrolab underwater habitat (now located at NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring!), had opened up a world of new career opportunities. "I knew in my gut that was what I wanted to do," he says. "It was worth it." In fall 1980, after several years working in the dive industry, John took a job as a biologist and first employee with what was then Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary. Shortly after joining the sanctuary, he began working on a project that would change his life in ways he couldn't have imagined.
After years of circling the globe for various marine conservation projects, John found himself once again crossing the Pacific on a plane bound for the country he had left under vastly different circumstances: Vietnam. The purpose of his visit was to participate as an instructor in a multi-national MPA workshop — concerned not with the country's military defense, but instead with the protection of its marine resources. "That was a very different mission than the first time," he remembers.
So, after a long and fruitful career of relentless work in marine conservation and maritime heritage, what does retirement hold? Not much in the way of relaxation, to hear John tell it. "I never took up golf that much," he says. "If it comes down to diving and searching for lost artifacts under the water or chasing a little round ball around a golf course, the choice is an easy one for me."
"I have to admit I've got some mixed feelings about moving on from Sanctuaries, but I felt that I needed something to push me out the door and on to my next chapter in life," he says. Just don't think for a moment that something as trifling as retirement will keep John Halas away from the national marine sanctuaries for long. "I live five miles up the road from the office, in the home that I planned for retirement, so I'll still be around," he says. "It's not goodbye forever." - by Matt Dozier Let us know what you think about Sanctuary Connections by answering this 1-minute quick survey. |
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