Masury Discusses How to Support RI's Fishing Industry and Eat Better

Masury Discusses How to Support RI's Fishing Industry and Eat Better

Kate Masury of Eating with the Ecosystem says that Rhode Island has more than 100 native edible seafood species — and the nonprofit is working to get the word out for Rhode Islanders to try and eat more “local.”

“We’re a small nonprofit based right herein Rhode Island, but we do work all around New England, actually, to promote what we call a ‘placed-based’ approach to sustaining New England’s wild seafood,” said Masury.  “We’re all about getting people to eat…in balance with the ecosystem, like our name entails. So eating a wide variety of species, taking care of the habitats that produced our seafood, and supporting our local fishing communities at the same time.”

Masury joined GoLocal LIVE as part of an ongoing partnership between the Rhode Island Food Policy Council and GoLocal.

“For us it’s all about eating local,” said Masury. “We’re super lucky here in Rhode Island to live close to all these bodies of water that produce all these delicious seafood species for us to enjoy — actually over a hundred different edible species come out of Rhode Island waters.”

“We actually in Rhode Island import the majority of our seafood that we eat, despite catching this bounty of different species,” she pointed out. “Instead we import things like shrimp and salmon and canned tuna and tilapia and things like that, when we actually have all these delicious species — but there’s not demand for them so we end up sending them away. Right now our foreign markets are now impacted so our fishing communities are really feeling in.”

“We’re doing online seafood cooking classes, teaching people how to cook with some our local seafood species — and trying to get people more comfortable with trying new things,” said Masury. 

To learn more about Easting with the Ecosystem’s programs, go here.