If checkerboarding does not work out, AkzoNobel has an alternative: create a surface so smooth that barnacles cannot hold on to it.

ECONOMIST: Monitor: Reducing the barnacle bill | The

When they are painted onto a surface, this arrangement forces them into a kind of checkerboard pattern which makes it much harder for barnacles and mussels to stick, according to David Williams, who is in charge of commercialising the idea at AkzoNobel, a multinational chemical company.

ECONOMIST: Monitor: Reducing the barnacle bill | The