For the past few years, items like fish skin wallets, belts, handbags, briefcases and bikinis have been creating a buzz in exclusive boutiques in Europe and Japan. Now, the trend is taking off in the United States. A front page story in the July 9 Washington Post, for example, highlighted haute couture designers who are producing everything from shoes to bikinis, all hailing fish skin's softness, beauty and versatility. Fish tanners in New Zealand, Ireland and France maintain the skins are as strong as crocodile leather and have the strength and durability of a manmade fiber.

The Post article introduced Pascal Vuadelle, a tanner from rural Brittany, the "fish basket" of France. Vuadelle, who calls fish skin "the leather of the 21st century," has perfected the method of producing perfect skins for the fashion industry using "precious," closely guarded formulas that vary with each species of fish.

Each month the self-taught tanner turns 5,000 skins (at a cost of nine cents each) into supple, odorless, strips that return $4 to $5 from wholesalers. Before you can say Vera Wang, designers turn the skins into pricey items in demand by fashionistas, who hail them as a friendly alternative to exotic leathers. Dior, for example, sold pink salmon shoes and an $800 purse designed by John Galliano in its boutiques during the spring season. Givenchy had a small evening stingray purse on a silk cord for $1,620. And salmon bikinis are being marketed by the Scottish fashion firm Skini.

"We are going to be selling shoes in stingray and clothing in salmon this winter," Jean-Charles said. His Web site www.oceanleather.com sells a Pacific salmon belt with gold strip buckle for $69, cod backpacks for $320 and stingray flasks for $90. A shark clutch shoulder bag fetches $210.

Entrepreneurs from Chile also are preparing to cash in on the fish skin craze by launching a large-scale export industry for salmon skin products - everything from clothes and accessories to interior designs and soft furnishings. Financial Times/UK said the new industry will eventually create 150,000 new jobs, according to Eulugio Evans, one of the founders of the "Fish" label that will market the salmon skin products.

Evans said Chile's farmed salmon industry, valued at close to $1 billion each year, translates into one million square feet of untreated salmon hides per month. Previously, the skins have been thrown away, a practice that drew fire from environmental groups. Inspired by the success of Chilean wines in global markets, the "Fish" project hopes to soon be part of a new government backed "Made in Chile" campaign that seeks to capitalize on recently signed free trade agreements with the European Union and the United States, Financial Times said.

Catfish scores

American catfish farmers won a huge victory in July against their competitors from Vietnam. The U.S. International Trade Commission agreed in a 4-to-0 vote that imports of Vietnamese frozen fillets are injuring the domestic catfish industry. The highly charged trade dispute clears the way for stiff duties by the Commerce Department, which ruled last month that the Vietnamese fillets have been "dumped," or sold at unfairly low prices. U.S. catfish farmers and processors had complained that the flood of catfish from Vietnam had forced them to start laying off workers, as prices dropped to unprofitable levels. The industry, which employs about 13,000 people, is concentrated in some of the least-prosperous areas of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana. The duties on the imported fillets will range from 37 to 64 percent of the import prices.

Glow fish

Singaporean authorities have confiscated 400 aquarium fish genetically modified to make them glow in the dark. Seafood.com reports the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority feared the tiny green fluorescent fish could get into the wild and wreak havoc on Singapore's ecosystem. Spokesman Goh Shi-Yong said the fish were implanted with luminous genes from light-emitting jellyfish by Taikong Corp., a Taiwan manufacturer and distributor of aquarium products. The local aquarium supply company that had the fish told investigators they came from a Malaysian wholesaler. Goh said genetically modified organisms must get import approval from the authorities and no transgenic animals had yet been approved. The glow fish were reportedly made sterile to ensure they did not disturb the ecological balance if they are released into rivers. Aquariums across the city-state were being checked to make sure they were not selling them.

Board travel trimmed

Due to budget cuts, the state Boards of Fish and Game will no longer be taking their annual meetings on the road. The Board of Fish cut 10 days out of its schedule, and all meetings will be in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau. Spokesman Art Hughes said there was some initial outcry, especially over relocating the Bristol Bay meeting in December, but there hasn't appeared to be too much complaint from other regions. To further cut costs, the number of proposal books published each year has been significantly reduced and people are being directed to the BOF's Web site. A regional coordinator position in the western region was also eliminated. Note that any agenda change requests to the upcoming BOF must be received (not postmarked) by the Juneau office by Aug. 18. The deadline also applies to Chignik co-op proposals. Here's the tentative BOF meeting schedule:Oct. 4: Pribilof Island blue king crab, Anchorage

Nov. 12-17: statewide finfish, Anchorage

Nov. 18-19: Chignik salmon co-op, Anchorage

Dec. 9-17: Bristol Bay finfish, Anchorage

Jan. 12-19: Arctic/Yukon/Kuskokwim finfish, Anchorage

Feb. 15-26: Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Islands finfish, AnchorageKodiak-based free-lance writer Laine Welch can be reached via e-mail at msfish@ptialaska.net.