Kochi, Mar 18 (IANS): The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) on Monday launched an innovative mobile App ‘MARLIN@CMFRI’ to encourage citizen science initiatives in marine fisheries research.

‘MARLIN@CMFRI’ allows the public to effortlessly upload photos of marine fish species encountered in the vast expanse of the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone, leading to the development of a rich visual repository of marine fishery resources.

The App encourages users to provide species details ensuring that the database is scientifically enriched, facilitating accurate species identification.

This data will contribute to the development of a sophisticated, AI-powered system for automated identification of marine fishery resources.

Dr A Gopalakrishnan, Director, CMFRI said on Monday that the App was a collaborative platform that unites individuals passionate about marine conservation.

“By bridging the gap between citizen science and cutting-edge technology, ‘MARLIN@CMFRI’ transforms every user into a crucial contributor to the understanding and preservation of marine biodiversity,” said Gopalakrishnan.

The app was developed under a project led by Dr Eldho Varghese at the Fishery Resources Assessment, Economics and Extension division of CMFRI.

“The knowledge base generated by this application will lead to the creation of an automated system for estimating marine fish landings through visual images captured at landing centres, employing advanced AI-driven Deep Learning algorithms,” said Varghese.