Naturalist
Rissel Moretti
Rissel was born in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, on the island of San Cristobal. His family was among the first to settle this large verdant highland, and started off living in the lush highlands where they worked as farmers. Rissel spent his elementary, middle and high school years on San Cristobal, but considers his early experiences aboard his uncle’s small tour boat as the most important. It was on the water that he first began to appreciate the natural wonders of the archipelago. During school holidays, he would spend hours in the water, snorkeling and volunteering with local fishermen. He was so drawn to the sea that he became a fisherman as a teenager, and has many wonderful memories of encountering sharks and turtles while diving for lobster. Ultimately, he realized that he preferred observing marine wildlife to extracting it, which inspired him to train as a dive master.
Rissel left the islands to attend university in the large port city of Guayaquil. A year later, he volunteered with the Galápagos National Park Service during his summer holiday and happened to be in the islands when the Galápagos Guides’ Course was administered. He passed the entrance exam and went on to fulfill his life-long dream of becoming a naturalist guide and dive master in the Galápagos National Park and Marine Reserve.
Since then, he has worked non-stop in his beloved islands, learning more and more about their unique natural history with time. He is since married and has two children, Heike and Rissel Jr., who have given him even more motivation to grow as a person and as a professional, and to work towards educating the world at large about the importance of the Galápagos.