Mr. Camilo Trench is the Academic Coordinator and co-manager of the UWI Discovery Bay Marine Lab and Field Station, where he co- manages the UWI hyperbaric chamber and supervises UWI DBML Science, Diving and Outreach staff. He is a lecturer in the Dept. of Life Sciences and also the coordinator of the UWI DBML Internship program.
His role as Academic Coordinator requires that he interacts and advises students from UWI and other Universities on a myriad of marine science research topics like coral reefs, seagrasses, forested wetlands, coastal and marine flora and fauna, ecosystems management and disaster risk reduction. To date, he has supervised or co-supervised over twenty undergraduate and postgraduate students in various marine ecosystem related research topics. Camilo is one of Jamaica’s few trainers of the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment Fish monitoring protocols.
Camilo is Jamaica’s foremost expert on mangrove ecosystem restoration. His output has allowed NEPA to refine their mangrove restoration protocols and suggested best practices have been incorporated into national policy and guidelines. He is currently the mangrove expert for Jamaica’s national mangrove restoration initiative, by the Forestry Department. He has helped to negotiate key mangrove positive initiatives like a USD 100k donation for the purchase of a Carbon analyzer for the Centre for Marine Sciences, from which numerous papers shall be generated.
Since 2020, he has produced over twenty technical reports with colleagues, published nine peer-reviewed articles, and numerous posters and media interviews and appearances.
Camilo is currently the UWI Mona’s board representative for the Association of the Marine Labs of the Caribbean (AMLC) and is the organization’s President for 2026/2027.
