M. Youssouf Ali is Bangladesh's leading fisheries biologist, policy planner and advocate for protecting the open water fishery resources. He has played a key role as a researcher, technocrat and environmental activist for the last 50 years. He graduated from the University of Calcutta with Honours in Zoology and joined the Dept. of Fisheries, Govt. of Bengal, in 1945. Later, he obtained a MSc and Ph.D degrees from the Institute of Fisheries, University of British Columbia, Canada. He held important positions in the Government ending his service career as Secretary, Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock of the Government of Bangladesh. He was team leader of two major exercises - Monitoring of the Experiment on the New and Improved Management of Fisheries in Bangladesh and Monitoring of Fish Production in floodplains under the Third Fisheries Project. Besides many publications to his credit, Dr. Ali also authored the companion volume, Fish, Water and People (UPL, 1997).