AI-Powered Identification of Manatees for Conservation and Health Monitoring

William & Mary students will have a unique opportunity to collaborate with Mote Marine Laboratory on a multidisciplinary research project applying artificial intelligence to identify and track individual Florida manatees based on scars and markings. By developing an AI-powered image recognition tool, students will contribute to scalable, non-invasive conservation efforts that support population monitoring, health assessments, and habitat protection.

This multidisciplinary research initiative, in collaboration with Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida, offers a unique opportunity for William & Mary students to apply cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to one of today’s most urgent conservation challenges: the identification and tracking of Florida manatees, a species experiencing sharp population declines.

Students, particularly those with a background in computer programming, data science, or related fields, will work alongside William & Mary faculty in Data Science and an interdisciplinary team of marine biologists and conservation scientists. Through this collaboration, students will gain real-world experience at the intersection of technology and environmental science.

Traditional tracking methods for marine animals, such as attaching transmitters, are often invasive, expensive, and difficult to scale. This project seeks to develop an AI-powered image recognition tool that can identify individual manatees based on distinctive scars, tail patterns, and skin markings. Using deep learning and generative AI, images will be processed into consistent sketches that highlight each animal’s unique features. These will be converted into numerical vectors and stored as digital IDs, along with time-stamped and geo-tagged metadata, that can be used to identify and track manatees needed to inform their conservation and population health.