Associate Professor Quinn Fitzgibbon of IMAS said the technology, called Lobster AI, analyses features on a lobster's shell to create a unique identifier. "It's just like a fingerprint or facial recognition technology," he said. "We've used AI machine learning to look at the features on the shell of the lobster, and amazingly, we've been able to show that this technology can pick up those features and they're individual. There's no two shells the same."
The development comes as the Tasmanian southern rock lobster industry, which catches just over 1,000 tonnes per year valued at about $90 million, recovers from a difficult period marked by trade restrictions and a domestic market flooded with cheap lobsters.
Fisher Joe Sayers, who docks a boat after nearly three weeks at sea, said the industry was bouncing back but costs were rising. "Now we're up to getting a few dollars in the bank from better prices, but our costs are going up all the time, like fuel and baits," he said. "So, you outlay a lot of money before you go to sea, you can outlay say $50,000 before you even throw the lines off."
Mr Sayers, who has fished for more than 30 years, said he wanted to hand over an industry in good shape to the next generation. The AI system is designed to improve sustainability and management by enabling precise tracking of individual lobsters, reducing reliance on physical tags and allowing better monitoring of stocks.