The strong adhesion of barnacles to underwater facilities causes great fowling, on the other hand, it provides a platform for underwater attachment research. The associated anti-fouling and underwater adhesion techniques are strongly dependent on the understanding of their attachment processes and molecular mechanisms. At present, the macroscopic process of the adhesion of the barnacles has a more in-depth development, including the substrate detection, signal transmission, glue secretion and curing, but the molecular mechanism of the process such as receptor recognition and the regulation of gene are still limited. Biological and biochemical studies have been motivated mainly by understanding the nature of the adhesion, which indicate that the various stages of molecular mechanisms related to anti-fouling and adhesion is essential. In this paper, the focuses are on the common themes and interconnections in three related areas: the process of barnacle attachment, the internal signal molecular response during adhesion, and the mechanism of curing during the process of glue secretion. The existing problems were also given to analyze further possible research.