Japanese angelshark is eaten and the rough skin is made into a type of leather called shagreen for use in wood finishing. Angel sharks in general are highly threatened by commercial trawl fisheries due to their susceptibility to capture and low rate of reproduction, and angel shark species elsewhere are known to have declined markedly under fishing pressure. Trawling activity in the Yellow Sea and other parts of the northwestern Pacific is intense and, coupled with pollution, has had a serious impact on the local ecosystem. The Japanese angelshark population is suspected to have declined by up to 50% or more under
Victimless Leather points mentioned above. As with most of the TC&A projects the artists are concerned with the relationship between humans and other living systems, both natural and scientific made or manipulated. The artists wanted to make a leather-like material using living tissue, and ended up making it in the shape of a stitchless jacket. The artists based the jacket on a biodegradable polymer, coated it with 3T3 mouse cells to form connective tissue and topped it up with human bone cells in order to create a stronger skin layer. To create the victimless leather, the team needed an artificial environment where