Seal Identification

Re-identifying individual seals by their whisker and face patterns — non-invasive, across seasons.

Manual

Upload Seal Image

Select a clear image of a seal's face showing whisker patterns and facial features. The image should ideally show the seal from a frontal or slight angle for best results.
Run the Model

Click the 'Submit' button to process the image. The model will extract unique facial features and search for matches in the database of known individuals.
Review Matches

The system will display the top-k most similar seals from the database with confidence scores. High confidence matches typically indicate the same individual across different sightings.

Overview

Seal Identification lets researchers track individual seals over time without tagging or any invasive procedure. By reading the unique whisker patterns, facial markings, and head shape of each animal, the model builds a distinctive “fingerprint” that stays stable across seasons and years. Developed with Wageningen Marine Research, it supports the grey and harbour seal colonies of the Wadden Sea — a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Key Features

What the re-identification system brings:

Whisker & face fingerprints

Combines whisker patterns, facial markings, and head shape into a signature unique to each individual.

Top-k matching

Searches a database of known seals and returns the most similar individuals for review, not just a single guess.

Confidence scores

Each match comes with a confidence score, so a high-confidence hit signals the same seal seen again across sightings.

Non-invasive, across seasons

Identification from photographs alone means individuals can be followed year after year without ever handling them.

Use Cases

Where it supports seal conservation:

Long-term population studies

Re-identify individuals across survey years to estimate survival rates and build complete life histories without invasive tagging.

Movement ecology

Map how seals move between haul-out sites across the Wadden Sea, informing conservation planning and protected-area design.

Reproductive monitoring

Track individual females and their reproductive success to understand breeding frequency, pup survival, and population growth.

Behavioral research

Link identities to observations to study social networks, site fidelity, and behavior within colonies.

Beyond the Wadden Sea

Though built for the Wadden Sea, the same re-identification approach transfers to other seal populations and marine mammals worldwide — from Arctic ice seals to Antarctic fur seals — wherever non-invasive individual tracking can support conservation.

In partnership with