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40 researchmarine resources programsThe Marine Resources Center (MRC) is a national facility for the development and use of aquatic organisms in basicbiological research, biomedical research, aquaculture, and fisheries science. Our research programs focus on biologicalprocesses integrated at the level of the whole organism.Program in Sensory Biology, Behavioral Ecology,and Population GeneticsThe tactics and mechanisms of camouflage are being elucidated by studyinghow cuttlefish choose among their numerous body patterns when confrontedwith different backgrounds. A visual sensorimotor bioassay was used successfullyto prove that cuttlefish do not possess color vision, and hence are accomplishingcolor and pattern matching to backgrounds without the aid of color perception.At the level of the skin, we have been measuring reflectance in tiny skin patches,and relating these optical effects to skin ultrastructure.Using octopus as a “biomimetic model organism,” we havecontinued to determine the most basic set of flexible arm andsucker movements that their muscular hydrostat can accomplish.This information is being used by collaborators in engineering torefine robotic arms with higher degrees of freedom in multipledirections.For squid fishery management, we developed an acousticmethodology to map the distribution and abundance of squideggs, which provide a proxy for recruitment potential.Collaborative behavioral and electrophysiological studies usingthe sea slug Hermissenda continued with the anti-cancer drug,bryostatin (now in stage-2 human oncology testing). Recent results revealedthat short bryostatin exposures over two consecutive days prior to associativeconditioning triggered protein synthesis sufficient to produce consolidated longtermmemory.