Fish lured into the wood

FISH stocks in the Third World could improve using an African tradition of trapping them using artificial reefs made of sticks, according to Stirling University researchers.

Malcolm Beveridge, Donald Baird and Alan Stewart of Stirling's institute of aquaculture have won a Pounds 400,000 European Commission grant for a three-year project with collaborators in India, Bangladesh and the Netherlands. The project builds on the African reefs. Fish are attracted because thickets of wood not only offer shelter, but a surface for periphyton, a source of food.