I-Corps: Fisheries Management Through Species Identification Technology

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of technology that integrates artificial intelligence and genomics to enable the rapid and reliable identification of species central to domestic and international seafood supply chains. The proposed technology will allow supply chain actors to verify the species identity of fish and seafood products in diverse field settings.

Fast and accurate species identification is fundamental to the enforcement of protective regulations in marine fisheries, including for seafood imports and exports. Verification of species identity by law enforcement is paramount to identifying instances of illegal harvest and trade, reducing overfishing that threatens the long-term availability of ocean-derived protein, and preventing the intentional substitution and mislabeling of seafood products.

This technology will equip law enforcement and other supply chain actors to verify the species identity of products moving throughout seafood supply chains. Successful translation of this technology into the commercial sector will ultimately assist domestic and international markets in meeting a rapidly growing need to find innovative solutions that facilitate more sustainable use of marine fisheries, protect seafood supply chains, and strengthen the blue economy.

This I-Corps project is based on the development of smart species identification technology that leverages advances in artificial intelligence and genomics to allow users to quickly and reliably identify species. The ability to confidently identify species is of fundamental importance to numerous scientific disciplines (e.g., ecology, evolution, conservation, natural resource management).

However, determining species identity in organisms with conserved morphologies or in specimens where diagnostic morphological features have been removed often necessitates genetic testing, which requires specialized equipment and expertise. This not only creates roadblocks in biological and ecological studies but is also problematic for the sustainable use of natural resources.

Species identification is particularly important in marine fisheries where rapid and reliable identification is necessary to quantify harvest levels, identify illegal harvest, and monitor conservation status. This technology offers a promising solution to the problem of species identification in fisheries and seafood sectors by allowing visual and genomic species identification to be conducted at the point of need without specialized training or expertise, making it ideal for fisheries settings.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.