NEWPORT – Moritz Schmid, a researcher whose work includes finding ways to use facial-recognition technology to identify marine organisms, has been hired to oversee research in the Oregon Marine Reserves program.
Schmid fills the ecological team-leader slot after Lindsay Aylesworth became program leader last fall.
Schmid, 36, comes from Oregon State University, where he was a researcher focusing on underwater camera systems and artificial intelligence to better understand larval fish dynamics off the Oregon coast.
The development of new computer algorithms/AI has enabled scientists to make better use of camera footage by using facial recognition on marine organisms – ultimately giving way to a new approach to ocean monitoring.
Schmid said he is looking forward to bringing his background in nature conservation and ecology, coupled with his knowledge of the Oregon coast’s oceanography and statistics to address the program’s goals.
“I like using new technologies to answer scientific questions we haven’t been able to address before,” Schmid said. “In the Marine Reserves Program, I can make a difference for the animals as well as the people.”
The ecological team is responsible for the bulk of the research conducted in Oregon’s five marine reserves. That ranges from hook-and-line surveys with volunteers to temperature and oxygen monitoring and other studies of the reserves’ habitats, fish and invertebrates.
Enacted by the 2009 Legislature, the marine reserves program includes five reserves and nine protected areas that together cover nine percent of Oregon’s near-shore ocean waters. The reserves, where no plants or animals can be removed and where development is banned, are underwater listening stations tracking ocean changes including fish, invertebrate and algal communities.
