Reef Fishes of the East Indies

Reef Fishes of the East Indies is a 3-volume set. This is the first edition; the second edition publishes July 2024.
Stretching from the Andaman Sea to the Solomon Islands, the East Indies encompasses a vast array of marine habitats and unsurpassed marine biological diversity. It is home to approximately 2,600 species occurring on coral reefs and nearby habitats. Reef Fishes of the East Indies presents the first truly comprehensive treatment of the region’s reef fish fauna in nearly a century. This monumental three-volume set is richly illustrated with more than 3,600 color photographs. The informative text provides current information on the classification, habitat, and distributional range of each species as well as an overall synopsis for each of the 120 families covered. Many of the featured species have not been previously recorded from the region, nor have their photographs appeared in print. The book represents the culmination of the prolific careers of two dedicated marine biologists, Dr. Gerald R. Allen and Dr. Mark V. Erdmann, who have spent a combined total in excess of 60 years exploring and describing the piscene treasures in the “heart” of marine fish biodiversity.

Reef Fishes of the East Indies is an essential reference for biologists, naturalists, and scuba divers. This is the only reference that covers every known reef fish from the East Indian region. The book has been written to engender an appreciation of the region’s amazing biodiversity and the urgent need to conserve it for the benefit of future generations.

• Gerald Robert Allen, Author

  Gerald R. Allen served as Senior Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum in Perth and is an international authority on the classification of coral reef fishes. Since leaving the Museum in 1997, he has worked as a private consultant, primarily involved with coral reef fish surveys in Southeast Asia for Conservation International.

• Mark V. Erdmann, Author

  Mark V. Erdmann is senior advisor for Conservation International–Indonesia’s marine program, with a primary focus on managing CI’s marine conservation initiatives in the Bird’s Head Seascape in West Papua.

• No marine biologist of the past two decades has had a greater influence on the direction of scientific research about coral reefs and divers’ knowledge of reef fish than Gerald Allen. . . . [Reef Fishes of the East Indies] represents a distillation of Allen’s lifelong passion for tropical reef fish.
  —http://www.alertdiver.com/Gerry_Allen