There’s something kind of fishy about the interiors of today’s newest eco-friendly superyachts – literally. The latest trend in sustainable, environmentally-friendly upholstery for your solar-powered yacht is salmon leather, made from the skins of farmed salmon. Sounds kind of gross, but apparently there’s a growing market for this stuff thanks to multimillionaires who see little irony in the concept of an eco-friendly superyacht designed solely to demonstrate the inutterable wealth of its owner. The leader in the salmon leather field is a German company called Nanai, which sources the skins from fish raised on certified organic salmon farms in Ireland.
With an appearance quite similar to python skin, salmon leather looks rather exotic when dyed. It’s light and thin, yet durable and resistant to tearing. As the skins form a by-product of the salmon industry, the fish are not specifically bred or killed for their skin, keeping animal rights types happy, while Nanai’s ecologically sustainable vegetable tanning process does the same for greens. Of course it will take a while for oligarchs and such to come around to the idea that some old fish skin is a suitable replacement for much more exotic, exclusive materials like the stingray upholstery featured on Roman Abramovich’s Eclipse. Like, forever.
