February 8, 2016 — In just a few decades, we’ve gone from hunting whales to protecting them. But many are still endangered, and they face a barrage of potential threats. Now, researchers are developing new ways to study these animals, from facial recognition software to help track whales’ movements, and using baleen to trace the history of stress in whales’ lives.
1. Facial Recognition for Whales: There are only about five hundred North Atlantic right whales in existence. Christin Khan, a research fishery biologist (a.k.a. whale spotter) at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, spends a lot of her time photographing whales so that the health and movements of each individual can be closely tracked. But actually identifying the whale(s) in a photograph can be time-consuming and frustrating. Khan found herself wondering if it was a job a computer could do for her.
“It started with this idea that this technology is becoming more and more prevalent,” she said.
“We thought, how great would it be if we could apply this technology to right whales?”
Last August, Khan launched a competition to develop the equivalent of facial recognition software for right whales. The winning algorithm correctly identified eighty-seven percent of the whales on which it was tested, but not using their faces, exactly. Rather, it recognizes the colosity patterns on right whales’ heads, which is the pattern of rough, white skin that forms on right whales as they reach adulthood.