Over 20 years ago scientists started using the unique shapes and patterning on white sharks’ dorsal fins to recognize individuals and help them catalogue and re-identify sharks. However, in many cases there are hundreds of photos to go through and doing this by eye alone is extremely time-consuming and open to errors. Fast forward to 2008 where Mike Meyer, representing the Department of Environmental Affairs, Branch: Oceans and Coasts, approached Dr. Tilo Burghardt from the University of Bristol to develop software that will automatically recognize individual white sharks by the shape of their dorsal fins through the use of digital photographs.  The project’s vision is to foster collaboration between scientists researching white sharks from around the globe, and create a programme whereby tourists on cage diving boats or anyone else that manages to take a photograph of a white shark can contribute to the project. Read more about the project in a UK Telegraph article and local South African paper.