image processing; animal/individual recognition; machine learning; photo-identification; cetacean; dolphin

Photo identification (photoID) is a non-invasive technique devoted to the identification of individual animals using photos, and it is based on the hypothesis that each specimen has unique features useful for its recognition. This technique is particularly suitable to study highly mobile and hard to detect marine species, such as cetaceans. These animals play a key role in marine biodiversity conservation because they maintain the stability and health of marine ecosystems due to their apical role as top predators in food webs.