The compound eye work began with developmental studies of cell lineage in development of the visual system. This work was on insects. More recently my group has been studying the structure and function of the compound eye in commercially important species of crustaceans including the Norway lobster - Nephrops norvegicus . This benthic species is usually active outside the burrow only when light levels are low - of moonlight intensity or less. Their eyes are so sensitive to light that if they are brought to the surface during daylight hours, irreversible retinal damage and blinding occurs.
Fisheries biologists are interested to know if such discards survive and reproduce normally.
Our studies have helped to assess the risks involved. As well as our work on sense organs, I have been working on other applied problems including new methods for recording moult histories of lobsters that have been caught, tagged and released into the wild. When such animals are recaptured, it is now possible to determine how many times they have moulted after release, using methods developed by us. Such knowledge is useful if accurate models for lobster production are to be determined. In addition to this work on moult histories we are currently looking for new ways to age lobsters.