I-Corps: Fisheries Management Through Species Identification Technology

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发集成了人工智能和基因组学的技术，以使能够快速和可靠地识别国内和国际海产品供应链的核心物种。拟议的技术将使供应链参与者能够在不同的领域环境中核实鱼类和海产品的物种身份。快速和准确的物种识别对于执行海洋渔业保护性法规至关重要，包括对海产品进出口的保护。执法部门核实物种身份对于查明非法捕捞和贸易的情况、减少威胁海洋衍生蛋白长期可获得性的过度捕捞以及防止故意替代海产品和贴错标签至关重要。这项技术将使执法部门和其他供应链参与者能够核实在整个海产品供应链中流动的产品的物种身份。成功地将这项技术转化为商业部门，最终将有助于国内和国际市场满足迅速增长的需求，即寻找创新的解决方案，促进海洋渔业的更可持续利用，保护海产品供应链，并加强蓝色经济。这个i-Corps项目是基于智能物种识别技术的开发，该技术利用人工智能和基因组学的先进技术，使用户能够快速而可靠地识别物种。自信地识别物种的能力对许多科学学科(例如，生态学、进化论、保育、自然资源管理)至关重要。然而，在具有保守形态的生物体或在已去除诊断形态特征的标本中确定物种身份往往需要进行基因测试，这需要专门的设备和专业知识。这不仅给生物学和生态学研究设置了障碍，也给自然资源的可持续利用带来了问题。物种识别在海洋渔业中尤其重要，因为需要快速和可靠的识别来量化捕捞水平、识别非法捕捞和监测养护状况。这项技术为渔业和海产品领域的物种鉴定问题提供了一个有希望的解决方案，允许在需要的时候进行目视和基因组物种鉴定，而不需要专门的培训或专业知识，使其成为渔业环境的理想选择。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.