Fernando Bretos
Fernando Bretos
Fernando Bretos is a Cuban-American conservation scientist focused on helping coastal communities in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean build resilience to climate change through nature-based solutions and habitat restoration. He currently works at The Ocean Foundation as a Program Officer.
“Find water. It will motivate and rejuvenate you when the going gets tough” - Fernando Bretos, 2023.
Morrell, T. J., Jones, S., Diaz, B, Bretos, F., 2023. Wild Miami: Explore the Amazing Nature in and around South Florida. Timber Press.
Bretos, F. Azanza Ricardo, J., Moncada, F. Peckham, S.H, Angulo, J, Diego, A., Thompson, K., 2016. Fisheries learning exchanges and sea turtle conservation: An effort between Mexico, Cuba and the U.S. to engage Cuban coastal communities in non-consumptive alternative behaviors, Marine Policy (68), pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2016.05.022
Koubrak, O., Amargos, F. P., Lemus, J. A. A., Wiley, T., Thompson, K., Martin, T. F., Bretos, F., 2022. Strengthening Marine Species Protections in Cuba: A Case Study on the Critically Endangered Smalltooth Sawfish, Gulf and Caribbean Research, 33(1). https://doi.org/10.18785/gcr.3301.06
Guerra, C. C., Ricardo, J. A, Avila, R. B., Bretos, F., Alvarez, P. P., 2021. Influence of Sandy Coast Vegetation on the Reproductive Success of Green Turtles at Cuban Nesting Beaches, Chelonian Conservation and Biology, 20(2). https://doi.org/10.2744/CCB-1460.1
Hernandez-Fernandez, L., Gonzalez, R., Olivera, Y., Amargos, F. P., Lopez, C. B., Sotolongo, L. B., Bretos, F., Martin, T. F., Cabrera, D. L., Moret, F. S., 2019. Distribution and status of living colonies of Acropora spp. in the reef crests of a protected marine area of the Caribbean (Jardines de la Reina National Park, Cuba), PeerJ, 7(1669). https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6470
Fernando Bretos was born in Colombia to Cuban migrants and raised in Australia, Mexico, and Miami, Florida. He attended Oberlin College, where he earned an undergraduate degree in Biology. He has a Master’s degree from the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
After obtaining his undergraduate degree, Bretos was a Program Manager at The Ocean Conservancy, managing the Caribbean Biodiversity Program. The program was dedicated to marine biodiversity research in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. He also attended the 1999 expedition to Navassa Island, an uninhabited island between Haiti and Jamaica, which led to its U.S. National Wildlife Refuge designation in 2000. He helped organize and engage volunteers while at the organization.
In 2004, while completing his master’s degree, Bretos began working as a Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies. In 2008, Bretos received fiscal sponsorship from the Caribbean Marine Research and Conservation Program (CariMar) from The Ocean Foundation. CariMar focuses on collaborative marine conservation research between Cuba, the U.S., and neighboring countries. From 2012 to 2019, Bretos was the Director of Marine Conservation for the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science. While at the museum, he created Museum Volunteers for the Environment, a program that engages Miami residents in restoring mangroves, corals, and dunes.
In late 2019, Bretos officially joined The Ocean Foundation as Program Officer of the Wider Caribbean Region. He oversees CariMar, an aspect of the Blue Resilience Initiative, which focuses on nature-based solutions to help coastal communities in the Caribbean build resilience to climate change. His expertise has earned him awards and honors, including recognition as a National Geographic Explorer and Kinship Conservation Fellow.
Bretos highlights that it is easy to feel alone at the start of your career, especially as a minority. However, he notes that the conservation community is large, growing, and always changing. If you do the right work and put your heart into it, people will find you and offer help. He remembers all of my mentors and thinks about them every day. While some are alive and some are not, they are all still with him on his journey, and Bretos seeks to make them proud through his work.
Bretos has four pieces of advice for young professionals considering environmental careers:
- Listen more than you speak,
- Stay true to yourself, and never forget why you got into the conservation sector in the first place.
- Immerse yourself in nature and water whenever you can, and
- Stay passionate about what you do.
Fernando Bretos. LinkedIn. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-bretos-7747235/
Fernando Bretos. The Ocean Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2023 from https://oceanfdn.org/staff/fernando-bretos/
Survey and interviews conducted by Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative staff. 2022-2023. Yale University-School of the Environment. New Haven, Connecticut.
Fernando Bretos {Photo]. LinkedIn. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernando-bretos-7747235/