Tim Godfrey

Tim Godfrey, co-author (sharks and rays) and publisher, started diving regularly while working as a journalist in Northwest Australia in 1983. He later travelled and worked on fishing boats and charter vessels in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Queensland and on abalone boats along Victoria’s Southwest coast, before working as a dive instructor and guide on safari boats in the Maldives in 1986. In 1996 he started Atoll Editions and self-published Dive Maldives, A Guide to the Maldives Archipelago; Malways, Maldives Island Directory (later published as Atlas of the Maldives) and Maldives Divers and Travellers Map. He later published Photo Guide to Fishes of the Maldives, by Rudie Kuiter in 1998 and Marine Life of the Maldives, by Neville Coleman in 1999. He completed a Bachelor Science (Marine Biology) degree at James Cook University, Qld in 2013.

A resource for conservation - Fishes of the Maldives Indian Ocean

The role of taxonomy in understanding and managing marine ecosystems is pivotal. Taxonomy provides basic and fundamental understanding of ecosystem components and units (biodiversity) that are important in its functioning, its maintenance and sustainable use. Without this understanding it is very difficult to conserve species through targeted management intervention. The loss of global marine biodiversity at an alarming rate means that difficult but important decisions have to be made now to protect species and their habitats. Consequently, accurate species identification in the field would allow more people to understand and appreciate coral reef fish. This Guide is a fundamental step forward in understanding and managing coral reef fish species of the Maldives.

Ameer Abdulla, PhD, Senior Advisor, Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Science, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Program, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Australia

Rudie H. Kuiter

Rudie H. Kuiter, principle author (fishes) and photographer, has always had a passion for fishes. Dutch born, he started diving in Sydney, Australia, in 1964 and began drawing and photographing the various species, most of which were unknown at the time. As research associate with the Australian Museum and Museum of Victoria, scientific papers on biology and descriptions of new taxa were published. Articles on seahorses, seadragons and various other subject of aquatic life have appeared in magazines around the world. He is the author of the Indo-west Pacific. He has dived temperate and tropical around Australia, and in many parts of the Indo-Pacific as far as Japan and the Maldives. He moved to Melbourne in 1980, working full time on fishes.