This photograph of a Northern Red Anemone (Tealia felina) was taken by Gloucester, MA divers and photographers Dave and Sue Millhouser. The Millhousers kindly provided OGL with two dozen images from their slide library of thousands, half of which were scanned, digitally printed, framed and now hang in our entrance hall. We hope to begin a collaboration with the Millhousers and other local divers in the near future to increase our holdings of Gulf of Maine species. If you are a diver interested in finding out how you can help OGL, please feel free to contact us at info@oglf.org.

A recent inventory revealed well over a thousand tissue and DNA samples in the OGL collection. This represents roughly a doubling of samples in the past year and an especially significant increase in the number of DNA samples. OGL recently purchased a robotic DNA processing instrument that enables us to put in a dozen small pieces of tissue and several hours later walk away with tubes of purified DNA. After a series of quality control tests, the DNA is banked and available to interested scientists. The pie chart shows a breakdown of the repository's samples by phylum.

Late this Spring, a fisherman brought scientists at the New England Aquarium a small, curious white skate. In shape it resembled a common North Atlantic species known as the Little Skate (Leucoraja erinacea), but its overall color was puzzling - was it a new or unusual species? A sample of blood was sent to OGL for genetic analysis: DNA was extracted from the red blood cells (nucleated in fish), and a distinctive segment of a gene called mitochondrial COI was isolated and sequenced. The result: a close to 100% match with the Little Skate COI sequence, indicating that this small, white fish was not a new species but a rare albino mutant!

In mid-August we said good-bye to our post-doctoral fellow DR. JOYCE YANG. In addition to assisting with various aspects of the OGL collection, she led a project to sequence the genome of the shipworm symbiont Teredinibacter turnerae, all 5-million-plus base pairs of it! Enzymes produced by this evolutionary 'houseguest' give the shipworm its ability to digest wood and may help scientists learn to make fuel from agricultural and domestic waste. Joyce has been awarded a prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship and has headed off to the Biomass Program at the Department of Energy in Washington. This Fall, OGL added two new scientists. DR. KOTY SHARP from the Smithsonian's Fort Pierce Research Station in Florida, will lead our new research effort to explore the effects of bacteria on coral health and reproduction. DR. ABBY FUSARO from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, will assist in the development of the OGL collections and help to coordinate our efforts to bank the genomes of North American coral reef organisms from Bermuda and Florida. JOHN NOVE of Ipswich joined the staff in January of this year as manager of the collection, research assistant, and newsletter editor. John worked at Harvard University and Genetics Institute and maintains a small bookbinding business, Grey Seal Bindery. He is joined in the lab by SARAH OLIVO, an experienced aquaculturist and aquarist, who also works part-time as an educator with the M.I.T. Sea Grant program. NICOLE WOOD, a biology major at UMass/Amherst, spent her second summer with us, working on a project related to the genetic family trees of different strains of shipworm endosymbionts and their hosts.

Cone snails like Conus magus from the Philippines employ incredibly toxic venoms to paralyze their prey. One of these substances has been identified, synthesized, and used to make a now-on-the-market pain killer for patients who no longer respond to morphine. But what other useful biomolecules might the molluscs of this southeast Asian archipelago produce? A biodiversity survey involving OGL aims to find out . . .

There's still time to make a year end tax-deductible charitable contribution to the Ocean Genome Legacy. Your donation can make a big difference. The funds you provide will go toward creating a public archive—a community resource that preserves the genetic information contained in the Ocean's most endangered organisms and makes this information available for research to protect marine species and environments. Make a gift by check, credit card, or PayPal or join our sponsored equipment program before midnight on December 31 - and benefit from a 2008 tax deduction! The Ocean Genome Legacy is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) organization.

Massimo Boyer, www.edge-of-reef.com, and the NOAA Photo Library, www.photolib.noaa.gov.