Read on Twitter
THREAD: you know why calamari is so important to Rhode Island? Overfishing and climate change. Here we goooo, with bespoke charts! https://twitter.com/JoeHeim/status/1296049030422835200
And...being a huge nerd, I did some very quick and dirty data analysis to illustrate my points. Data are from here unless otherwise cited: https://foss.nmfs.noaa.gov/apexfoss/f?p=215:200:16072374285782::NO:::
As with the rest of New England, Rhode Island used to catch a lot of groundfish - cod, yellowtail flounder, etc. But overfishing in the 1960s from foreign fleets, and then continued overfishing through the 1990s from the US fleet let to a dramatic decline in both landings & $.
After the groundfish stocks crashed, Maine turned to lobster. But warming waters in Narragansett Bay & southern New England waters led to lobster shell disease and that fishery became less profitable too. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180820122220.htm
Here's what that looked like in landings & revenues. (note this is federal data because this is a quick and dirty analysis - not from state waters, which were even worse off.)
Rhode Island's iconic shellfish, the quahog, had a big decline in the 1990s too, linked to warmer waters. https://www.ecori.org/aquaculture/2018/10/31/decline-in-east-coast-commercial-shellfish-landings-linked-to-environmental-factors
Source for above data. http://www.dem.ri.gov/pubs/regs/regs/fishwild/mpshell2018.pdf
So what were fishermen to do? SQUID. SO MANY SQUID. While squid had been heavily fished by foreign fleets in the 1960s, they hadn't been as heavily impacted as the groundfish because of their short lives and robust reproduction. Now? ALL THE SQUID.
But where to sell the squid? Historically, there was not much American market, though that is changing. https://www.ediblemanhattan.com/foodshed-2/producers/super-markets-shops/squid-pro-quo/#
Still, Americans only eat about 4 oz of squid a year - basically, one delicious calamari appetizer. https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2019/05/13/us-squid-catchers-turn-to-innovation-msc-in-push-to-boost-consumption/
Rhode Island, as the KING OF SQUID, wants to sell more squid to Americans. https://www.savingseafood.org/news/economic-impact/rhode-island-is-king-of-squid-more-pounds-are-brought-to-shore-than-any-other-seafood/
Though, pertinent to Trump's trade wars and to carbon emissions, 80% of that squid is frozen, shipped to China, processed, and shipped back.... https://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/westerly/most-of-r-i-s-calamari-catch-is-processed-in-china-a-local-group-is/article_45520d74-bc9d-11ea-b155-1776a23c4ffe.html
To sum up: Rhode Island fishes a ton of squid because historic overfishing and ongoing climate change makes squid abundant & profitable as compared to other options. And Rhode Island wants you to EAT THAT SQUID. Hence the great calamari-ing of the DNC state roll call.
Given the importance of squid to Rhode Island, and the importance of the ocean to the Ocean State, one can only draw one conclusion about the DNC and RI squid's relationships.
It's a squid pro quo.
/fin #OceanClimateAction
It's a squid pro quo.
/fin #OceanClimateAction
sigh, edit: this should read "the importance of the DEMOCRATIC PARTY to the Ocean State," that is what makes the pun work. alas for my typo.
