FERNANDO BRETOS

USA Board Member

Fernando is Director of Cresta Coastal Network, a Project of The Ocean Foundation, which assists coastal communities in the Caribbean to adapt to climate change and a fast-changing ocean. He joined the Positive Change for Marine Life US Board of Trustees in 2025, following a close bond formed with Karl Goodsell through their Kinship Conservation fellowships.

He is a conservation scientist who focuses on the regeneration and protection of tropical coastal and marine habitats, as well as developing innovative financing mechanisms to fund conservation activities and the creation of marine protected areas. He also directs efforts to protect critically endangered marine species, such as the smalltooth sawfish and nesting sea turtles, and engages small-scale fishing communities in expanding their community livelihoods. He created a regional MPA network in the Gulf of Mexico called RedGolfo that brings together the three countries that share the largest enclosed body of water in the Atlantic to cooperate on conservation and research priorities.

During 12 years at Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, he created Museum Volunteers for the Environment, which since 2007 has engaged over 25,000 Miami residents in restoring over 25 acres of mangrove, dune, coral reef and coastal hammock. He was the Director of Frost Science’s Marine Conservation Program and helped design their $350 million science centre, aquarium, and planetarium, which opened in 2017.

While at The Ocean Conservancy, he managed the Caribbean Biodiversity Program, where he led a series of research expeditions to Navassa Island, which led to its declaration as a National Wildlife Refuge.

He has published extensively in academic journals and recently wrote a nature book about his hometown called Wild Miami: Explore the Amazing Nature in and Around South Florida. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Oberlin College. Fernando is a National Fellow at The Explorer’s Club, a National Geographic Society Explorer and a Kinship Conservation Fellow.