SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - There's a disconnect between the seafood that's caught in Rhode Island and the seafood that's eaten in Rhode Island.
"We import 90 percent of the seafood that we eat. We export 80 percent of the seafood that we harvest," said Anna Malek Mercer, executive director of the Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation. "That doesn't make sense."
Speaking at a food conference Tuesday at the University of Rhode Island, Mercer pointed to the scup fishery to illustrate the imbalance. The state has a 31.5-million pound annual quota for the small fish, but it's not a popular species among American eaters. Less than half the quota is filled every year and most of what is caught is shipped overseas. The stories are similar for butterfish and dogfish.
