Professor sparks caviar production

Look out Russia, Florida could be the new home of a multi- billion-dollar caviar industry thanks to the work of a local academic. Frank Chapman, associate professor of fisheries and aquatic sciences at the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, helped local firms to farm sturgeon rather than fish for them, a practice that had led to a decline in numbers. He also developed a feeding technique that enables the fish to reach maturity more quickly. Dr Chapman is now helping the University of Hawaii and the University of Georgia to develop similar schemes.