In 2023, an Italian university outpost in Faafu published what it called the first scientific record of bull sharks in the Maldives. MMRI had recorded the species before. So had the national shark management plan.
Asked about it, a MaRHE researcher drew a distinction: they weren’t the first to see the sharks, but the first to publish in an international journal. Local reports, he said, aren’t official.
A new study by Hana Amir and Aishath Sara Hashim puts numbers on what that means. Across 460 peer-reviewed studies about the Maldives published since 1985, Maldivians led just seven per cent. Of 60 studies documenting discoveries in Maldivian waters, 52 had no Maldivian author at all.
Publishing in a journal can cost upwards of US$2,000. Hana’s co-author, working from Malé, could not access most of the papers the study is built on.
https://maldivesindependent.com/society/fifty-two-discoveries-in-maldivian-waters-no-maldivian-authors-ab85
