MARINE FOULING ORGANISMS: NATURAL ATTRACTANTS AND REPELLENTS

An attempt was made to identify natural repellents of marine fouling organisms. A likely candidate for a natural repellent is the group of napthoquinone pigments of sea urchins, the spinochromes. The observation that in those sea urchins without pedicellaria capable of cleaning their spines, we have never observed either algal or sessile invertebrate growth lends support to the suggestion that these compounds may be algastats. It was not possible to establish any effect of these compounds. Observations by a number of naturalists have suggested that the marine tectibranch Aplysia californica may contain a repellent toward carniverous preditors either in its numerous epithelial glands or in its opaline gland. Using the crab feeding response as a bioassay it was possible to show that the opaline gland of this mollusc does contain a repellent.

• Corporate Authors:

  City of Hope National Medical Center

  Division of Neurosciences
  Duarte, CA  United States 
• Authors:
  • Kittredge, J S
• Publication Date: 1971-10-31

Media Info

• Pagination: 9 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Antifouling coatings; Fouling organisms
• Subject Areas: Marine Transportation; Materials;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00032236
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: Final Rpt
• Contract Numbers: N00014-71-C-0103
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 21 1973 12:00AM