Bradley Norman of Murdoch University in Perth worked with a computer programmer, Jason Holmberg, and a NASA scientist, Zaven Arzoumanian, to adapt software originally developed for telescopes to recognize patterns of stars and other celestial objects.

Using thousands of photos submitted by researchers and others through a conservation organization, Ecocean, founded by Dr. Norman, the researchers were able to identify individual sharks around Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, a prime sighting area for these huge fish.

In a paper to be published this month in the journal Ecological Applications, the researchers report repeat sightings of many individual sharks from year to year, suggesting that the shark population, in that part of the ocean at least, is healthy.

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