Salmon leather

Salmon Leather from the Frisian part of Holland. Searious Fish Leather specialises in washing, degreasing and descaling fish skins, after which a semi-finished product is created in the form of a sheet of pure functional collagen protein. This can be used as a source material for fish leather.

The tanning
The tanning process starts with used process water. The company has no waste water. (Beside the toilet, they do not have a drain in the building.) The water is evaporated out of the wastewater and used a demister to bring this damp back to
water. The leftover pulp goes to a destruction company. Searious Fish does not use gas, steam or diesel.

To make the leather, the company skips the pickling step/stage (reduction of salt and acid). They don’t add heavy metals and have a chromium free process. For the vegetable green tanning, they only use the seeds, not the bark.

The fish
The salmon skins are farmed, not wild catch. Also, the eggs are from aqua culture. The salmon skins are farmed for their fillets, not for the skins. The skins are known as “waste” and normally used is animal feed products. This upcycling helps the cradle-to-cradle story (or from filthy to fashion). The salmon skins are free to use and no CETIS is needed. The salmon skins are from salmons around 3 years old.

What is the certification policy of the salmon farmers?
Food from the ocean is key to provide nutritious food with a smaller climate footprint than land-based food production. It is a triple win: for People, for the Planet and the Economy. All the – primary and secondary – processing plants must be certified according to a food safety standard recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), such as IFS, BRC, SQF, FSSC, ISO 22000, GSA BAP processing standard) or Chain of Custody certifications as required by GLOBAL G.A.P., GSA BAP, ASC and
where applicable, MSC. As a minimum, the salmon feed suppliers must be GLOBAL G.A.P. certified and 100% of the feed must comply with the policy on sourcing sustainable feed raw materials

The colours and finishing
Thanks to the collaboration with the most exclusive exotic tannery Caraval, the sky is the limit. Panels, print, laminate… everything is possible.