Jim Tait is an aquatic ecologist with over thirty-seven years’ experience in tropical and sub-tropical river systems spanning from northern NSW Australia to Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. Jim’s primary professional interests include freshwater fish, wetland and riparian ecosystems and catchment based natural resource management. Since graduating from Townsville’s James Cook University, much of Jim’s work has involved catchment-based assessments of aquatic ecological values and management needs, the assessment of potential impacts associated with water resource and mining development and the establishment of associated monitoring programs. Jim’s first engagement in an environmental impact assessment was in 1988 when he conducted a survey of the freshwater fish fauna in the Weipa area as part of an EIS for the Commonwealth Department of Defence. Jim’s professional engagement with the mining industry began in Papua New Guinea in the early nineties with three years (90-92) experience as a special projects biologist with Ok Tedi Mining Ltd where he was responsible for developing monitoring methods and programs and conducting regular Govt compliance monitoring of fish biomass. Through 2008-2011 Jim conducted baseline aquatic ecological studies associated with Rio Tinto’s South of Embley project and lead the preparation of the aquatic ecosystem chapter for the Amrun Project EIS (Rio Tinto 2011). He has also participated as a consultant Technical Advisory Panel member in the development of Water Resource Plans for seven Queensland River basins including the Barron, Calliope, Proserpine, O’Connell, Baffle, Southern Gulf and Mitchell. Specific contributions to these water resource plans included the identification of flow dependent ecological assets and assessment of their condition and critical flow needs. Jim is also an experienced conservation biologist who has undertaken assessments of biodiversity values and management needs at local to national scales. In 2004 Jim undertook a basin wide assessment of the status of Eastern Freshwater Cod populations and habitat within the Richmond River NSW to prioritise habitat restoration and management works for the species. In 2009 he was engaged as an expert witness to the Federal Court in a case concerning Lungfish passage at Paradise Dam Qld being bought under the EPBC Act. Jim’s more recent engagements include mine expansion environmental impact scoping studies in northwestern Cape York Qld, provision of ecological design inputs and development and implementation of monitoring programs associated with Rio Tinto’s Arraw Dam fishway, review and description of aquatic conservation values associated with five southern Gulf river basins for the Qld DES, and preparation of System Management Plans for six wetlands within the catchment of the Cape Bowling Green Bay Ramsar site in the lower Burdekin Region. Jim’s client base as a consultant has spanned three levels of government, mining, energy and primary industry sectors, research, legal, international aid, and community-based organisations. Jim is a Member of the Australian Society for Fish Biology, a Member of the Australian and New Guinea Fishes Association and a Life Member of the Australian Society for Limnology.