UN software helps detect shark species at risk – Terra Brazil

shark fins are so coveted in some countries which are often torn animal body without it being possible to identify it later, a problem that can be solved from a new digital tool launched by the United Nations (UN).

The iSharkFin program, developed by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with the University of Vigo, Spain, allows us to recognize the shark species, especially those more threats by illegal fishing, from the fins pictures, very concerned by the products used to manufacture the pharmaceutical industry, and is widely used in soups in China.

“The identification is very complex when the goods are unloaded in ports “, told Efe Castor Guisande, professor in the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology at the University of Vigo.

At coastlines around the world arriving ships with tons of fins, while the killed and mutilated sharks are thrown to the sea floor, a prohibited practice in some places, such as the European Union.

The new tool lets you download to your computer or mobile device fin image, choose four points of reference to define its form and pressing a button, get the species name in seconds.

For now, the iSharkfin is able to identify 35 species of sharks, although the goal is to broaden the base of data and develop an application for the Android system in the coming months.

University researchers stressed that there are 1,136 types of sharks and rays, although the work to focus on collecting information from those species in danger of extinction and commercial interest, reduced to little more than a hundred.

“The exploitation of fishing resources has a clear impact on these species, which reproduce very slowly and have poor recovery,” he said, in reference to sharks.

These large predators occupy a very high level of the food chain in the oceans and feed the most abundant species, helping to balance settlements of different types.

Another value that the shark fin has is the production of luxury dishes that impress on the table. Be the taste or the aphrodisiac and therapeutic properties attributed to them, a pound this fin can be worth up to 30 times more than shark meat itself, Guisande said.

Faced with this tradition, the Chinese government is trying to avoid its use in official parties and, according to some studies, the sale has fallen in the country.

Monica Barone, who heads the FAO team in charge of developing the new software, is confident that the tool to improve the statistics on exports and world imports of fish, as inspectors of ports and environmental managers can begin to identify shark fins with that system to control that endangered species are not fished.

The program can also be used by researchers, teachers or to those who have curiosity to identify this animal, so feared as admired.

In addition to this initiative, the expert points out that there are other similar applications, such as developed by Stanford University in the United States, to make pictures of rare species of shark and share them on the Internet worldwide.

“The more data we have, the more significant the results will be,” said Monica.

And so, in the near future, the fishing companies can determine what type of sharks are capturing and “already tell from the ship to the authorities” in order to not exceed the quotas set for each species.