Domoic Acid Detection of Razor Clams through Muscle Tissue via YOLOv8

Domoic acid is a toxin commonly found in razor clams, posing risks such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and, in severe cases, death. Some studies focus on its concentration in algae, along with developing planar interdigital sensors for sensing and instrumentation. This research proposes a system using a web camera to capture images of razor clam muscle tissue. Employing Linear Contrast Stretching for feature extraction, YOLOv8 detects the presence of domoic acid. Our study aims to evaluate YOLOv8's effectiveness in achieving high accuracy for detecting domoic acid in these bivalve shells. This work introduces a potentially novel application of YOLOv8 for seafood safety inspection. The envisioned system shows promise for real-time screening of razor clams in commercial processing facilities and research laboratories. The model identified safe razor clams with 95% accuracy (57 out of 60 trials) and those with domoic acid with 81.67% accuracy (49 out of 60 trials). Future efforts should expand the dataset to include a wider variety of razor clam species and address data limitations to enhance the system's accuracy and generalizability.