Fish leather is here, it's durable - and it's made from invasive species to boot
Aarav Chavda has been diving off Florida for years. Each time, he became more and more depressed by the ever-growing emptiness, as colorful species of fish and coral reefs continued to disappear.
An important reason for that disappearance is the lionfish, an invasive species that has exploded in Atlantic waters from Florida to the Caribbean in recent decades, and in many other places from Brazil and Mexico to the Mediterranean.
>Lionfish have no natural predators outside their native range - in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Red Sea - and will consume everything, devouring about 79% of young marine life within five weeks of entering a coral reef system. "You can see the impacts on the reefs when you dive now - it's less dynamic, it's less cacophonous," Chavda said.
"We know that There are solutions for some of the problems - such as coral-friendly sunscreens to help protect reefs - but no one has been able to do anything about the lionfish. to take action by creating Inversa, which transforms the lionfish into a new product: fish leather. On Wednesday, World Oceans Day, the team was recognized as one of the nine finalists of the Global Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge (Oric) .
Chavda, 27, and her childhood friend from Texas, Roland Salatino, started the Florida-based company to make the leather. They process fish skins by tanning them with drying agents and dyeing them before selling the leather to partner companies for f area of high-end products, including wallets, belts and handbags. Fish skin is thin, but because the fiber structure is transverse, it is stronger than many other types of leather.
Aarav Chavda has been diving off Florida for years. Each time, he became more and more depressed by the ever-growing emptiness, as colorful species of fish and coral reefs continued to disappear.
An important reason for that disappearance is the lionfish, an invasive species that has exploded in Atlantic waters from Florida to the Caribbean in recent decades, and in many other places from Brazil and Mexico to the Mediterranean.
>Lionfish have no natural predators outside their native range - in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Red Sea - and will consume everything, devouring about 79% of young marine life within five weeks of entering a coral reef system. "You can see the impacts on the reefs when you dive now - it's less dynamic, it's less cacophonous," Chavda said.
"We know that There are solutions for some of the problems - such as coral-friendly sunscreens to help protect reefs - but no one has been able to do anything about the lionfish. to take action by creating Inversa, which transforms the lionfish into a new product: fish leather. On Wednesday, World Oceans Day, the team was recognized as one of the nine finalists of the Global Ocean Resilience Innovation Challenge (Oric) .
Chavda, 27, and her childhood friend from Texas, Roland Salatino, started the Florida-based company to make the leather. They process fish skins by tanning them with drying agents and dyeing them before selling the leather to partner companies for f area of high-end products, including wallets, belts and handbags. Fish skin is thin, but because the fiber structure is transverse, it is stronger than many other types of leather.
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