Question 1

Hi Aquaborne Team, can tuna skin be used for leather goods? How about sward fish? Thanks! -John Hwung

Accepted Answer

Hi John, thank you for your question and for your support! Our process is suitable to effectively convert various species of fish-skins into a premium leather. Most difficult so far to work with we found skins of sturgeon fish (from caviar production) due to its unique pattern and hundreds of bony scutes along its bodies which makes the process a bit challenging. However, its uniqueness makes the skins of sturgeon most appealing and exotic. We haven’t tried sword-fish skins yet. Our main focu...

Question 2

This is very interesting idea. I may be one of the few people who own a fish skin belt so I can attest to the quality feel and unique look provided from the fish skin. I have two questions: (1) Can you share more about the "proprietary" drying process, in particular, if any of...

Accepted Answer

Hi Jeff, thank you, great questions! 1. There is not much “proprietary” in the drying stage, the most crucial and proprietary I’d say would be steps prior to drying, (soaking, neutralizing, tanning, etc..). Note, that we intend to do this on a commercial scale, and depending on our final facility design and resources we’ll be using either drying tunnels or an overhead conveyor chain for drying our aquatic leather. Regarding the IP protection, the only protection we see at this point is to not...

Question 3

What does the finished product smell like. I''m 68, but I still can smell the leather of a new baseball glove when Little League started. Also, as far as the Carp fish. Would you change the name or say, "how does my Carp feel"?

Accepted Answer

Hey John, our aquatic leather doesn’t have any fishy odor if that’s what you are referring to. It doesn’t feel Carpy either :) Most of the traditional leather in the industry has been treated by Chromium 6 chemical that is not considered eco-friendly. We don’t use any chromium or harmful chemicals in our tanning process. Our leather is very nice to touch, elastic, waterproof, with very pleasant aroma of naturally derived tannins (chestnut, mimosa, etc..). Thanks for your question.

Question 4

Hello. I love your idea but would like to know more about the process of creating fish leather? What is the environmental impact of your curing process? What kind of waste is produced? Thank you.

Accepted Answer

Hi Amber, thanks for your questions. Since we are in California which has some of the most stringent environmental regulations, our tanning process was developed with that in mind. We don’t use any harmful chemicals such as Chromium 6 or similar, which is typically used in the leather production industry. The fish is a cold-blooded species, and the fish-skin properties, for example, fibers and collagen are completely different from warm-blooded animals, therefore the process of tanning aquati...

Question 5

One of the differences between using a traditional leather like from a cow versus a fish is the size of the animal itself. For example, you mention 2 lbs of salmon can yield 5.3sqf of leather, but what's the average size of those pieces? Something like a leather jacket, or fur...

Accepted Answer

Hi Robert, you are correct in terms of size disadvantage in cow vs fish, since most fish have smaller bodies, you’d need more pieces of leather to make larger items (jackets, couches, etc..). However, fish is so versatile and knowing in advance what kind of a finished product one is making skins can be selected and sewn into panels of various sizes. This could simplify a process for a manufacturer. Also, we have access to varieties of larger-size fish that grow to 6ft and will yield larger pi...

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Producing Eco-Friendly Leather From Discarded Fish-Skins

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