By Coco Liu, Bloomberg Greener Living
For years, Kate Masury, a Rhode Island-based environmentalist and seafood lover, heard from the fishing industry that the species they’ve been catching were changing. Staples such as Atlantic cod were dwindling and American lobsters — another local top-seller — were moving farther north.
Other species not common to the area, like Spanish mackerel and blue crab, were appearing and becoming more abundant as ocean temperatures rose.Fishermen were saying “I wish we could catch more of it,” she said. But they weren’t sure they’d be able to sell seafood that locals never heard of or knew.
As the executive director of Eating With the Ecosystem, a New England nonprofit that helps the seafood industry adapt to climate change, Masury has been trying to convince the whole supply chain, from fishermen to restaurant goers, to incorporate these species that thrive in warmer water, which she calls “climate winners.”
Bloomberg Green spoke with Masury about her experience of introducing “climate winners” to consumers, the surprises she’s discovered along the way, and the barriers to inserting those less-familiar species in our seafood supplies. The conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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