ABBEVILLE, La. — Jacob Sagrera unrolls an alligator skin and lays it flat on a metal table, brushing off flecks of salt. He holds it up to the light, looking for blemishes, and gives it a score.

That score will help a tannery an ocean away prepare it to be used by a luxury designer — for items like boots, watch bands and handbags destined for fashion runways and posh shops.

Then he adds it to a pile of hides, each with a yellow tracking tag that allows authorities to enforce legal trade.

Advocates say commercial alligator farming has helped preserve a species often seen as scary, bothersome or good only for their skins.

Not all conservationists think that’s a good thing, but for the farmers and luxury brands seeking to market their products as sustainable, it’s made sense to tie conservation to capitalism.

Some of the scientists who study them agree.

“These wetlands, these alligators … it has to have some kind of monetary value,” said George Melancon, alligator research biologist for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “Otherwise, people just forget about them.”

Sagrera’s grading work at his family’s operation, Vermilion Gator Farm, is just one step in a decades-old system.

American alligators were once in peril of being hunted to extinction, and went on the Endangered Species List decades ago.

Their numbers weren’t too depleted to rebound in the wild if their habitat was maintained, say some experts, including Grahame Webb, director of Wildlife Management International and an adjunct professor at Charles Darwin University in Australia who has worked on reptile and crocodilian conservation since the 1960s.

But scientists with the state of Louisiana proposed a different way to boost their numbers: farmers would pay landowners for eggs, raise the gators to sell their meat locally and their skins on the luxury market and then release some back into the wild every year.

Now, Louisiana produces around 400,000 farmed alligators every year, according to the state’s wildlife & fisheries department, which valued farmed skins in 2024 at over $56 million.

The state decides how many young alligators to release annually on data from nest surveys and hunting tags, and estimates around three million alligators now in the wild in Louisiana.

Now, Louisiana produces around 400,000 farmed alligators every year, according to the state’s wildlife & fisheries department, which valued farmed skins in 2024 at over $56 million.

As wild numbers have grown, they’ve dropped the percentage of farmed gators returned each year, from almost 20% in the early 2000s to about 5% now.

American alligators were delisted as endangered in 1987 but are now a species of “Least Concern” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, though their trade is still regulated because of how similar they look to other, more vulnerable crocodilian species.

Alligators can be found across the Southern US, but Louisiana is by far the largest producer, with farms also in Georgia, Florida and Texas.

Farmers and state officials say the trackers help ensure every product came from a legal operation.

One company that sells alligator leather goods, Col. Littleton in Lynnville, Tennessee, keeps records of all its tracking tags, said Hayley Holt, their director of corporate and specialty sales.

They mostly sell within the US, but many retailers log where they sourced their materials in case they want to ship products internationally, Holt said.

Alligator farming benefits from a large legal market and strong regulation, said Oliver Tallowin, senior program officer on wildlife use and trade for the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.