As sales vanish, skin stays on alligators

[Louisiana1976]

RACELAND, La. — After five years, Tommy Fletcher and his alligator farming business are facing irreconcilable differences.

“It’s like a marriage,” he said. “It was a bumpy road, and then all of a sudden it was over.”

The alligator industry makes for an odd mix of hardy men on the bayou who smoke Camels and drive crumbling pickup trucks, and Paris and New York fashion setters who consider it reasonable to spend $12,000 on an alligator-strap watch.

This peculiar relationship worked well enough for decades, but it has soured as of late. Last year Louisiana farmers, who produce most of the world’s alligator skins, collected over 500,000 eggs from the wild. This year, for the first time, most farmers did not pick up any.

snip

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/us/30gator.html?_r=1&ref=us

[dkf]

1. Well live by the trend, die by the trend.

I guess alligator skin is out now as is spending ridiculous amounts of money on a watch, boots, whatever.

[boobooday]

2. It's worth reading the whole article

Just to get that last quote from the alligator farmer at the end.

[AtheistCrusader]

3. I can't imagine spending that kind of money on anything but

a very durable synthetic.

[pscot]

4. Alligator Industry?

I thought it was just a bidness.

[Bigmack]

5. Imagine the impact on the...

wild alligator population. No egg collection = lots of baby alligators.

The article said 14% of the farm raised alligators have to be released to the wild, but I'll bet natural nesting means more wild alligators.

Like ripples in a pond.. I wonder what the effect will be on the ecosystem.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. Alligators and crocs make very nice skins.

Nice purses, very durable. Snakeskin is pretty but not very durable. Scales scrape off.

I once saw a man in the Houston Symphony with a crocodile fiddle case. The rows of bumps down the spine went down the long axis of the top of the case. That was cool.