This paper provides the first analysis of imports and exports of fish leather by the USA. Estimates of minimum levels of trade were obtained from the records of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for 1997–2001, and possible conservation consequences were considered. Data show that imported leather items used the skins of at least 51 types of fish. Of the 41 identified to species level, six were freshwater fish, eight diadromous and 27 were fully marine. Eels and hagfishes (marketed as ‘eelskin’; eight named species), stingrays (10 named species) and sharks (15 named species) dominated the trade. An average of 725 000 fish-leather products, worth over US$ 6 million, was imported each year to the USA. A significant decline in fish leather imports over the five-year period studied derived largely from changes in ‘eelskin’ imports. Fish leather in the USA was reportedly sourced primarily from the Republic of Korea, mainland China and Thailand, although the records were flawed. About 93% of leather products were obtained from wild fish. Exports from the USA totalled approximately 5% of imports by volume. Many of the fish species comprising the largest imports for leather were characterized by low resilience to exploitation, with one-third of known species considered threatened or near threatened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). This pilot assessment indicates the need for better record keeping if sustainability of fish exploitation for leather is to be evaluated.

Seahorses (genus Hippocampus) are traded globally for use in traditional medicines, souvenirs and as aquarium fishes. Indications that the trade was expanding geographically in response to increasing demand in consuming nations prompted this first study of the seahorse trade in Latin America. In 2000, over 400 people related to the seahorse trade in Mexico, Central America, Ecuador and Peru were interviewed. Customs data and other trade records from these and five additional countries or regions trading seahorses from Latin America were obtained. Dried seahorses were exported by almost every surveyed country at some point in the 1990s, with Ecuador, Peru and Mexico exporting hundreds of kg per year over multiple years, and the latter two nations both exporting tonnes of seahorses at least twice. The live seahorse trade was confined to Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Brazil; the last dominating this trade and exporting several thousand seahorses annually. Substantial declines in seahorse abundance, attributed primarily to incidental catches in shrimp trawl fisheries, were reported consistently by respondents in many regions. These data contributed to an Appendix II listing on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora of all seahorses, thereby requiring that the trade be monitored and controlled. Additional conservation measures are needed to address fishing pressure on seahorse populations.