Independent Scientific Advisor to the SCCN Board, Paul Hoetjes grew up on Curaçao, then went to study at the University of Amsterdam where he received his Masters degree in Biology in 1984, after which he returned to Curaçao. He worked as Curator of the Curaçao Public Aquarium for thirteen years until he began work for the government of the Netherlands Antilles, where he is now senior policy advisor for the Department of Environment & Nature (MINA). He represents the Netherlands Antilles at various international environmental agreements and initiatives, including the SPAW Protocol. He has been very much involved in the activities of the SPAW Protocol, participating in the drafting of criteria to list endangered species, and in the development of guidelines and criteria for protected areas. He was also closely involved with the development of the Marine Mammal Action Plan for the Caribbean and helped to get it adopted by the Parties to the SPAW Protocol in 2008. Within the Netherlands Antilles his tasks include facilitating and stimulating nature conservation on the various islands. He helped to establish the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA), a cooperative alliance of the nature management organizations of each of the Dutch Caribbean islands, whose main objective is to build financial security for nature management by setting up and capitalizing an endowment fund while building capacity and strengthening cooperation between the islands. Paul is an avid diver who coordinates coral reef monitoring in the Dutch Antillean islands and leads a volunteer Reef Check group on Curaçao. He recently led a thorough survey of the marine biodiversity of the Saba Bank, a large submerged atoll, which could be an important area for whales and dolphins.

"We know very little about the whales and dolphins surrounding our islands; I am confident that SCCN can become a center of excellence instrumental to building our knowledge of these extraordinary creatures, necessary to effectively protect them."