09/25/2026
GCFI is pleased to announce Dr. Mark Vermeij, Science Director at Carmabi Marine Research Station in Curaçao and Professor at the University of Amsterdam / Universiteit van Amsterdam as the Keynote Speaker for GCFI79.
Dr. Vermeij brings an exceptional combination of international scientific expertise and deep, locally grounded Caribbean experience to GCFI79. After obtaining his PhD from the University of Amsterdam, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Miami and in Hawaiʻi before establishing his career in Curaçao. His research focuses on coral reef community dynamics across multiple spatial and biological scales, including microbial, genetic, and metabolomic approaches.
As Science Director at CARMABI, Dr. Vermeij works at the intersection of science, conservation, management, and island development. CARMABI has a long history of facilitating Caribbean research, supporting hundreds of visiting researchers, advising governments and NGOs, managing protected areas, and engaging local schoolchildren through environmental education.
What makes Dr. Vermeij’s perspective particularly valuable for GCFI79 is that his work is not only about the Caribbean, it is rooted in the Caribbean. Being permanently based in Curaçao has given him firsthand experience with one of the region’s most important challenges: how small island nations can pursue economic development while safeguarding the marine resources upon which their communities and economies depend.
In his Kenote Address “Missing Conservation Goals,” Dr. Vermeij will challenge us to consider the gap between scientific ambition and what is realistically achievable for small Caribbean nations. Drawing on his personal and professional experiences, he will explore why some proposed conservation approaches can be difficult to implement in small-island contexts and argue for clearer, practical measures of conservation success that better support long-term decision-making.
His keynote promises to be thought-provoking, candid, and firmly grounded in both high-quality science and the realities of working and living in a Caribbean small-island setting, making it especially fitting for the GCFI79 theme: Future-Proofing Fisheries: Resources, Resilience, and Tradition.
We look forward to welcoming Dr. Mark Vermeij to the GCFI79 stage in Curaçao and to an important conversation about what effective and achievable marine conservation can look like for our region.
