Convocation Newsletter, Spring 2019

Deploy Tech for Ocean Life Yvonne Sadovy | Science P rofessor Sadovy, a world-renowned expert in reef fish, has been working at HKU since 1993 to advocate protection for fishes that are threatened with extinction and to achieve sustainable management of reef fish fisheries. In 1998, she founded the International Union for Conservation of Nature Specialist Group for Grouper and Wrasse (types of reef fish) and in 2000 co-founded Science and Conservation of Fish Aggregations (SCRFA), which she currently directs, and collaborates with bodies such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, TRAFFIC, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In addition to her teaching and research at the School of Biological Sciences, she works at The Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS) at HKU , a research facility at Cape D’Aguilar on the shores of Hong Kong’s only marine reserve. SWIMS’ research covers the waters from Southeast Asia to the Northwest Pacific. “In a truly globalised world, large urban centres like Hong Kong are responsible for extensive trade connections, but also for ensuring that they do not threaten the fish and fisheries outside of the city that we import and depend on,” said Professor Sadovy, whose field research at HKU has taken her to far-flung places such as Palau, Fiji and French Polynesia in the Western and Central Pacific. Professor Sadovy is working with Corvidae, a tech start- up that was launched in 2016 at HKU’s innovation and Photo: Eric Clua entrepreneurship hub iDendron . They are developing an app called ‘Saving Face’ that Hong Kong enforcement officers are already trialling to identify illegally imported fish, just by pointing a mobile phone at a restaurant or wet market fish tank and photographing target fish. “We have a problem in Hong Kong – a lot of fish are being brought in illegally, like ‘so mei’ 蘇眉 ”, Professor Sadovy said, referring to the Chinese name for Napoleon fish, a species she has long studied. The phone app can identify what Professor Sadovy calls “these incredible markings on the face of the animal we can use to distinguish among individual animals, just like we use fingerprints for people. We can track legally imported fish in this way” “It’s incredible – it’s an adaptation of facial recognition. It’s very exciting to work with this technology,” she said. The app highlights that fish are individuals and have personalised faces that we can distinguish, just like humans. “Ultimately this is not just about legal and sustainable trade. Conservation and good natural resource practices are about improving the relationship between humans and animals, and how we perceive and use other species. We must be sure not to threaten their populations so they are around for us to enjoy – whether to eat them or, as divers, to enjoy seeing them in the water, and knowing they will be there for the next generation”.