Shellfish shortage a major concern for businesses in Rhode Island

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — Seafood business owners are worried for their business due to a shortage of shellfish.

“There is no nitrogen in the water,” said Bill Foeri, owner of Digger’s Catch seafood in East Providence. “The clams are not living and are not coming back.”

Foeri said in four decades of experience he has never seen such an impact on the seafood community.

“I have shell-fished for 40 years,” Foeri continued. “Every year the shellfish came back to the same spots and grew back year after year.”

Foeri say the lack of shellfish this year has put his business in jeopardy.

“I am worried about the sustainability of my business,” Foeri added. “Now I am trying to open up some kind of oyster farm or some kind of farm to keep the business going. My employees need to work too.”

Other local seafood markets are having to order shellfish from out of state, with customers wishing their products were locally sourced.

“We don’t have much shellfish to sell to the customers,” said Sophia Yin, manager at Pacific Seafood in Providence. “Because of the weather, pollution and rain from the other day…we had to buy shellfish from other locations.”

There was a special legislative commission gathering Tuesday afternoon at the Rhode Island State House to talk about these issues, specifically the lack of quahogs in Narragansett Bay.

The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) responded to the concerns, saying “Generally, the trend of quahog landings is down, but it’s overly simplistic to attribute it to one cause. We don’t know exactly why but there are several theories posed by academic scientists, dem fisheries scientists, and industry members.”

According to the DEM, these changes include quahog predators, lower food availability, changes in sea bed habitat, and possible warmer temperatures from climate change, as well as harvest pressure.

“Usually in the spring there is a big plankton bloom, and it hasn’t been there the past couple of years,” Foeri explained. “Plankton is what the shellfish eat.”

“No plankton, no shellfish,” he concluded.