José Zenteno is a marine biologist with a background in fisheries science, management, and policy. He holds a BS in Marine Biology from Universidad de Valparaiso, Chile and a Master’s degree specializing in Coastal Marine Resource Management from the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

José's professional experience spans work in government-funded projects on fish larval ecology and coastal fisheries performance in Chile, to consulting for NGOs on sustainable fishing markets in Colombia, to fisheries policy development in Perú. For his Master’s Thesis at the Bren School as a Latin American Fisheries Fellow, José worked with a Mexican NGO called NorOeste Sustentable (NOS), on a community run scallop restocking project in Baja California. This project centered on developing a bioeconomic model to find optimal restoration strategies that would provide the greatest scallop biomass, while providing incentives for its conservation.

Currently, he is pursuing a PhD as a returning LAFF Fellow and plans to research the interaction between marine aquaculture farms and harmful algal blooms, and particularly developing adaptive management frameworks to reduce the risks these events have over seafood production and ecosystem health.

José is passionate about solving problems in coastal fisheries and the conservation of coastal communities and ecosystems in developing countries. He hopes that his research and work will contribute to the development of sound, practical policies for sustainable marine fisheries and aquaculture in Latin America.