Godfrey Merlen was born in England but has been a permanent resident of the Galápagos Islands for the last 43 years. He was deeply involved in the establishment of the Galápagos Whale Sanctuary, which contains a wide diversity of cetacea, the development of the Special Law for Galápagos, and the establishment of the Galápagos Marine Reserve. Although he is no longer an employee of the Galápagos National Park, he currently works as an assessor and collaborator with the National Park and the newly created Biosecurity Agency, whose work Merlen considers the most important for the survival of the Galápagos biodiversity. He was delighted to team up with his long-time friend, Dee Boersma, in the search for methods to secure the survival of the Galápagos Penguin, a charismatic, endemic, and endangered species.