Aarav Chavda has been diving off the coast of Florida for years. Each time he became increasingly depressed by the ever-growing empty spaces, as colourful species of fish and coral reefs continued to disappear. A significant reason for that disappearance is the lionfish, an invasive species that has boomed in Atlantic waters from Florida to the Caribbean in recent decades, and in numerous 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 are all-consuming, devouring an estimated 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 vibrant, it’s less noisy,” Chavda said. “We know there are solutions for some of the problems — such as coral- -friendly sunscreens to help protect the reefs — but nobody’s been able to do anything about the lionfish.”

   So Chavda and a team of ecologically aware fellow scuba enthusiasts decided to act by establishing a company called Inversa, which turns lionfish into a new product: fish leather. Chavda, 27, and his childhood friend from Texas, Roland Salatino, set up the Florida-based company to make the leather. They process the fish hides1 by tanning them with drying agents and dye them before selling the leather to partner companies to fashion into high-end products including wallets, belts and handbags. Fish skin is thin but, because the fibre structure runs crossways, it is stronger than many other types of leather. Each hide, Chavda says, can save up to 70,000 native reef fish.

      The hides are also more sustainable than traditional animal leathers, which generally require grazing on huge amounts of pasture — degrading soils and producing high carbon emissions. Inversa does not hunt the lionfish itself. Instead, it relies on educating and encouraging largely poor fishermen and women in often remote places to catch them. “We’re really sort of empowering the consumer and fashion by doing something for the planet — then we empower dive communities in fishing cooperatives to do something for themselves,” Chavda said.

(Richard Luscombe. www.theguardian.com, 12.06.2022. Adaptado.) 1 hide: an animal’s skin used to make leather