Sierra, the national magazine of the Sierra Club, has named Kerecis for its sustainable creation of medical grafts from fish skin. The article by Fiona Chandra, “We’re Running Out of Seafood, Yet We Waste Billions of Pounds of It,” names Kerecis for its uniquely high-tech, innovative and sustainable use of fish skin from the seafood industry.
“The filet yield after whole fish are processed depends on the type of fish but runs as low as 30 to 35 percent,” writes Chandra. “The rest of the fish—offcuts—are usually turned into low-value products like fertilizer or pet food, or else discarded completely.”
Chandra goes on to describe creative uses of what are known as offcuts—”trash-bound, non-filetable fish parts”—such as fish jerky and leather. These, she writes, “may be just the beginning for fish skin’s potential—its high collagen content renders it promising as a skin graft to treat burn injuries (currently, Iceland-based Kerecis has the only FDA-approved fish skin graft).”
The Sierra Club, a grassroots environmental organization in the United States, was founded in 1892. Based in Oakland, California, it has 3.8 million members and supporters. To learn more about the Sierra Club, visit www.sierra.org.
