Dareen Almojil's research focuses on understanding factors that drive population structure, mate choice and fitness in sharks. As part of her fieldwork she has sampled sharks and rays landing sites across different regional countries including: Kuwait, Bahrain. UAE, Oman, Yemen and Pakistan. She has also presented Shark Identification workshops aimed to build the capacity of local governmental fisheries enumerators and researchers. The initial difficulty that she faced in identifying some of the regional sharks and rays species was her main driver to push for the Sharks and Rays of the Arabian/Persian Gulf book.

The biodiversity, ecology and fisheries of sharks and rays of the Gulf were the subject of Alec Moore's PhD, and he has published numerous scientific articles on this topic. Alec's motivation for participating in this book started in 2001, when the sharks and rays he was seeing in Kuwaiti fish markets could not be identified using the very limited selection of guides available. Since then, he has identified thousands of sharks and rays in markets and harbours around the Gulf. This work
has led to exciting finds, such as new species of rays and the rediscovery of a very rare shark species unique to Arabian waters. His continuing research is focused on the science to support the conservation and sustainable management of Gulf sharks and rays.

William White has worked on the ecology, taxonomy and biogeography of sharks and rays for over 12 years and has published numerous scientific articles, books and book chapters on these topics. William's interest in the biogeography of sharks and rays, particularly in the lndo-Pacific region, led him to become involved in this book while trying to gather information on rare and new species occurring in the Gulf region. William has authored descriptions of more than 50 new sharks and rays, including from the Gulf. William's focus in recent years has been on the shark and ray resources of Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.