Sustainability: Calamari's Climate Edge

Squid's ability to flourish in warmer waters makes it fitting for a diet for the changing environment

- Deena Shanker

Ask Sal Ruggiero for the best squid in the US Northeast, and he’ll recommend the longfin variety freshly caught off the Rhode Island coast. It’s the tastiest, with a crisp bite—not as soft as imported squid, he says. Ruggiero, known as the “Calamari Kid,” is the general manager of the Joe Monani Fish Co. at the New Fulton Fish Market in the Bronx, New York. He sells fresh Rhode Island longfin squid for about $6 a pound, compared with $4 for the frozen stuff shipped in from China and India.

The possibilities for cooking squid, known as calamari in culinary applications, are almost boundless, says Ruggiero: “You could fry it, you could steam it, you could grill it.” He eats it at least once a week, sometimes twice.

Squid’s appeal goes far beyond flavor. It’s hailed as a climate winner for the dinner plate by fishers, mongers and marine biologists. A member of the Cephalopoda class along with octopuses and cuttlefish, squid has high growth rates, short lifespans (especially compared with large finfish such as salmon and tuna) and high plasticity, meaning the fish can alter their behaviors and bodies— for example, size at maturity—based on their environment. So the species is constantly becoming better equipped to survive the changing state of the ocean. Crucially these days, a growing body of evidence suggests that this adaptability is helping squid proliferate in warmer waters.