Facial scanning technology for passports is now being used in deep blue waters to give scientists a better insight into the lives of sea turtles.
Green Heroes, a not-for-profit organization based on the Queensland-New South Wales border, uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology commonly used in airports to track and analyze marine animals without interrupting them.
A photograph of a green sea turtle with unique facial scales analyzed by AI technology. (Provided: Rudi Vir)
The organization’s founder and director, Sarah Jantos, said the turtles’ facial scales were unique “like a human fingerprint.”
As part of the Ocean ID project, photographs are taken of the side profiles of sea turtles by citizen scientists, divers and snorkelers around Australia and uploaded to a database for scientific analysis.
“It’s actually much simpler to teach the machine to read a turtle’s face than it is to read a human’s face,” Ms. Jantos said.
“It’s cost-effective, it’s engaging, it’s educational and the volume of data is much greater.”
David Booth says the technology can be adapted to track other animals in the future. (ABC News: Jessica Lamb)
David Booth, associate professor of zoology at the University of Queensland, has studied sea turtles since 1996.
Dr Booth said other methods of tracking sea turtles could be time-consuming, disruptive and less effective.
“One (of the tracking methods) was fin tagging, which is quite invasive, and the other was putting satellite tags, which is very expensive…and it’s not something that the big public can do,” he said.
Dr Booth said the technology, used to track all sorts of sea turtle species, was “a game changer”.
An image of a green sea turtle uploaded to Ocean ID. (Provided: Sarah Jantos)
He said manual facial recognition has been used in research over the past decade, but it is labor intensive.
“This (AI technology) may be adapted in the future to other animals with some sort of variation in physical visual identification, such as the spots on a leopard shark or the markings on a manta ray,” said the Dr. Booth.
Dive operators on board
The critically endangered hawksbill turtle is found in tropical waters off the east coast of Queensland and as far south as northern New South Wales.
Its elusive migration habits inspired dive instructor Kristie Morgan to involve other dive operators in tracking the animals.
Kristie Morgan and Sarah Jantos from Green Heroes. (ABC News: Jessica Lamb)
The Green Heroes co-director has been diving with turtles on Cook Island, off the Gold Coast and Tweed, for more than 15 years.
“I said, ‘Let’s really get to know these turtles’…Are they locals? Do they travel?” she said.
“Then we said, ‘Let’s make this global,’ so we can follow them and know them all.
“We’ve got a lot of people from Cairns and Tasmania and they’re all contributing – it’s really exciting.”
The critically endangered hawksbill turtle is often seen in the waters around Cook Island. (Provided: Banahm Slabb)
Ms Jantos said AI technology was helping to promote conservation education.
“I see the wildlife crisis and the ocean crisis as a humanitarian crisis as well, and I feel really passionate about speaking out for those who have no voice and for wildlife itself.” , she said.
Green Heroes plans to expand the trial to a mobile app.
