This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will establish an aquaculture facility to breed and maintain laboratory reared populations of cephalopods. Marine Biomedical Technologies (MBT) is uniquely prepared to overcome the obstacles involved in successfully raising large laboratory populations of healthy cephalopods, and make these animals available to researchers and educators. The specific objectives are to establish laboratory breeding colonies of three species of cuttlefish and one species of squid, evaluate the effectiveness of visual cues placed in breeding tanks to induce early reproductive behavior in cuttlefish and squid, and to investigate the effects of an administered hormone precursor supplement on fecundity, individual growth, and mating frequency of cuttlefish and squid. The broader/commercial impacts of this research are to create the availability of a critical resource to ensure that research involving cephalopods can be conducted, can be accomplished faster, at less cost, with greater reliability, and to the direct benefit of society. In conjunction with Colleges and Universities, MBT will provide a fertile training ground to educate state-of-the art environmental scientists that will have a working knowledge of alternative model species, their husbandry, and the bench methods necessary to address environmental health questions through the application of such models. Finally, establishing a facility to breed and maintain captive stocks of cephalopods will result in a reduction of harvested animals from the natural environment. This will directly help in maintaining the stability and health of the marine ecosystem
