The new software “Save sharks” – The Daily Lazio

They called iSharkFin. Developed by FAO in collaboration with the Spanish University of Vigo and the financial support of CITES and Japan, is the latest idea fielded to face the extermination of predators which, driven in all the seas of the planet, are facing extinction.

The software is a tool for those involved in customs inspectors port and fish markets that will help in the identification of shark species to be examined . Not always in fact, unless it is not experts in the field, is simple to be able to recognize the identity of a species relative to another, and the new tool will be able to provide the necessary responses in a few minutes.

Avoid catching a protected species is one of the objectives that the software wants to achieve. This is why it is believed that will be extremely useful for fishermen. It could also give more precise answers on the actual number of sharks are killed each year for various reasons, first of all the traffic millionaire that is realized with fins, controlled by the mafia.

How iSharkFin works? The system, illustrated to the FAO, is based on artificial intelligence techniques. A photograph is loaded and the user chooses some key points of the sample as the fin, for example. Then an algorithm compares the information provided with its own database and identifies the specimen.

The FAO is also working on an application iSharkFin to use on smartphones and tablets as well as further expand the use of the instrument. There are 35 species of sharks that iSharkFin is able to identify so far from the dorsal fin. Seven of the pectoral fins which, unfortunately and as well as the backbone, are the first to disappear in case of capture voluntary. And ‘well-known fact that the poachers shark “spinnano” predators still alive on the boat deck and throw them into the sea shortly after targeting it to a horrible and painful death.

The numbers of trafficking of shark fins and trade for food are conflicting . They range from 70 to 90/100 million specimens that are killed each year. Numbers, even if the most optimistic, leaving little hope for the future to animals so fundamental to the very life that inhabit the oceans long before the appearance of the dinosaurs on Earth.