Dear colleagues, We invite you to attend the "Rise of the machines - Application of automated systems for matching dolphin dorsal fins: current status and future directions” workshop to be held at the World Marine Mammal Conference in Barcelona on Sunday, December 8, 2019. The focus of the workshop is to bring together photo-ID researchers and algorithm developers to discuss best practices for using fin recognition technology, and to assess whether a single ‘standard’ system can be developed for automated dorsal fin photo-ID. Prior to the workshop, attendees (and relevant researchers or research groups) will be asked to participate in a mini-experiment to evaluate a test set of bottlenose dolphin dorsal fin images so that we can assess the performance of the current methods and systems used for matching dorsal fin images. Results of this experiment as well as those obtained from a survey previously distributed on the methods used to conduct matching of dorsal fin images for photo-identification studies will be presented during the workshop and used to help frame workshop discussions. More information regarding this mini-experiment and our project goals can be found here: *https://sites.google.com/mote.org/evaluation-of-photo-id-methods <https://sites.google.com/mote.org/evaluation-of-photo-id-methods>*. The workshop is scheduled as a *full day workshop on Sunday, December 8 from 0830-1730*. For more information on the workshop and registration please visit https://www.wmmconference.org/workshops/ and scroll down to the Sunday full day workshop section. If you are unable to attend the workshop, but are still interested in participating in our mini-experiment, please provide your contact information here: *https://sites.google.com/mote.org/evaluation-of-photo-id-methods/test-your-s... <https://sites.google.com/mote.org/evaluation-of-photo-id-methods/test-your-system/request-for-test-data>* to gain access to the test data. We will ask that all results be submitted by *October 4, 2019* to give us time to collate all responses before the workshop in December. We hope that you can join us! The Workshop Organizers, Reny Tyson Moore (Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, Sarasota, FL USA) rtysonmoore@mote.org <rtyson@mote.org> Kim Urian (Duke University Marine Laboratory, Beaufort, NC USA) kim.urian@gmail.com