In The News
2020
Fosters.com
Fishermen selling from boat to table in response to COVID-19 challenges | April 27, 2020
New Hampshire Magazine
Bite-Size: Finding Local Meat, Seafood and Farm Products | April 21, 2020
"Through New Hampshire Community Seafood, fishermen provide shares for weekly dock-to-dish seafood. This cooperative of fishermen from Seabrook, Hampton, Rye Harbor and Portsmouth Harbors practice sustainable fishery management approaches while ensuring their fresh catch is always available for sale in-state."
Fox News
Coronavirus prompts New Hampshire fishermen to start new venture: ‘Boat-to-table’ | April 20, 2020
“The beauty of local seafood is that it passes through very few hands before it goes to the consumer. So, in this case, with the lobster, it's going through one set of hands.” She added. “So, it's really hard to find food that is only going through one set of gloved hands.”
WMUR
As COVID-19 impacts business, NH commercial fishermen turn to ‘boat-to-table’ approach | April 9, 2020
“With COVID happening and restaurants closing down and dealers aren’t buying from us anymore, we knew something had to change,” Koncheck said.
They are now trying the “boat-to-table” method.
Koncheck's wife came up with a Facebook page called "Fresh Lobster Portsmouth NH" to see if people were interested."
CBS Boston
Boat To Table: NH Commercial Fishermen Get Creative During Coronavirus Pandemic | April 8, 2020
A group of fishermen created a Facebook page where local people place orders before showing up to the pier and getting fish fresh off the boat.
“This is a really safe product,” Tomlinson said. “It travels through a limited set of hands before it gets to you. In this case, it travels through one set of hands, the sternman!”
2019
Union Leader
NH farmers lost $8M last year feeding us, yet we spent $4B importing food | November 6, 2019
Monadnock Ledger-Transcript
Fresh fish from the Gulf of Maine offered in Peterborough | April 22, 2019
"With a pick-up location at Four Winds Farm in Peterborough, Monadnock Region residents are able to gain access to some of the freshest seafood through their community supported fishery (CSF) program, which offers a “catch of the week” fish to be picked up every week."
Union Leader
Seacoast fishermen start their 7th season of reaching out to foodies | April 14, 2019
“It’s good to see a movement like this where everything is going right back to the restaurants again,” Driscoll said.
Driscoll said in years past, his products were always sent to Boston, New York or overseas.
“When it sells locally, that’s pretty cool,” Driscoll said."
2018
NH Chronicle
NH Chronicle features NH Community Seafood I 2018
" I love the fact that we are getting it right off the boats. I want it right from my coast. I want to know where it came from. We've met the guys who are pulling these fish out of the water, so it's great to know what hands your fish have touched and who's making the money..."
NH Public Radio
Facing a Dying Industry, Two Young New Hampshire Fishermen Head Out Anyway | 2018
“It would be very peculiar that we have this beautiful coastal town right on the water but yet none of the fish being consumed right on the water came from here," says Louis. "I mean that’s just a complete upside-down. If that were to happen, and the reality is, if we’re not careful, that could happen.”
Louis says it’s up to local restaurateurs to do what they can to support the fishery.
2017
Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment
Sustainability Industry Awards | 2017
New Hampshire Community Seafood is a multi-stakeholder cooperative that includes both fisherman and seafood consumers. Through this cooperative program established in 2013, 15 fishermen and 215 consumers work together to harvest, process and deliver locally caught seafood to nearby communities. Last year alone, the program provided over 40,000 pounds of fish through weekly delivery to 1,000 members at 20 drop-off locations and provided fish to 21 restaurants throughout the state.
The benefits of this program, and others like it, are ecological, economic and emotional. Fish are purchased at the docks for higher prices than are realized through traditional markets allowing local buying power to stay local. Ecological benefits are realized by providing higher value for all fish, allowing fishermen to receive higher profits for less fish, and for lesser known species, like pollock, Acadian redfish and spiny dogfish. These underutilized species are locally abundant but usually command low prices through traditional markets.
Through this innovative approach, New Hampshire Community Seafood is making strides toward a system that supports both fisherman and fish. Some of the greatest benefits of the program are from the connections made between fishermen and seafood consumers. Reestablishing this important connection, which has been lost over time, is restorative for all involved. The fishermen love to meet and talk with people who eat their fish, and consumers love meeting and learning from the people who catch their fish. By making these connections, New Hampshire Community Seafood is improving awareness and understanding of fishing practices and their impacts, and of the science, management and markets that shape our fishing culture.
Edible New Hampshire
Local White Fish | November 22, 2017
In the last issue we took a look at the amazing work being done by UNH and NH Sea Grant and their raising steelhead trout, kelp, and mussels, and though the virtues of the fish themselves swam prominently to the forefront, a crucial aspect of their endeavor calls for reiteration: providing an environmentally sound way to sustain not only the ecosystem but especially the local fishing economy and the diminishing group of men and women that keep the tradition alive.
Unfortunately, as director of NH Community Seafood and an ardent supporter of aquaculture herself, Andrea Tomlinson, points out, “There were a number of fishermen involved with the aquaculture project initially, and I can tell you the return was not worth the effort for them. Aquaculture takes a lot of initial capital for fingerlings and feed and equipment and then it’s a feed and wait game.”
Conservation Law Foundation
Local, Sustainable Seafood Supports Seacoast Communities | October 20, 2017
New Hampshire's seacoast, like much of New England, was built on the success of local fisheries. Andrea Tomlinson of New Hampshire Community Seafood explains how the availability of local, sustainable seafood helps preserve this important piece of our culture and bolsters communities up and down the coast.
Edible New Hampshire
Fishing for Sustainability | October 2, 2017
Michael Chambers is a farmer of sorts, and his farm is in the sea, a modest floating plot of aquacultural plenty near the mouth of the Piscataqua. Here, on a 14’ x 14’ platform constructed of HDPE pipe, rope, simple metal rails, and a narrow plank walkway, Chambers oversees what could potentially be an exciting and lucrative addition to New Hampshire’s momentous local food movement.
As part of an innovative initiative to foster both economic and environmental sustainability in the seacoast community, Chambers, a research scientist and aquaculture specialist with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension and NH Sea Grant, has spent the last six plus years raising and harvesting steelhead trout, blue mussels, dulse, and sugar kelp in a process known as integrated multitrophic aquaculture, which is science-speak for the careful maintenance of various marine species in optimal, symbiotic conditions.
NH Public Radio
Foodstuffs: Community Supported Fishery Lands Membership Haul | September 21, 2017
Last May, we reported on New Hampshire Community Seafood's effort to sign on at least 1,000 people for their community supported fishery, or CSF. A CSF is like a farm share, where subscribers can pick up seafood at various locations throughout the season.
The push for new members was driven by a desire to support New Hampshire's ground fishermen. Their deadline was the end of summer, and with that now upon us, Andrea Tomlinson, manager of New Hampshire Community Seafood, joins NHPR's Peter Biello with an update.
NH SeaGrant
Andrea Tomlinson: General Manager for N.H. Community Seafood | May 18, 2017
Andrea Tomlinson, the General Manager for N.H. Community Seafood, talks with us about how N.H. Sea Grant has helped her business and what the organization means to her.
NH Public Radio
Foodstuffs: A 'Dock to Dish' Effort Meant to Support N.H. Fishermen | May 4, 2017
Commercial ground fishermen on the east coast are struggling--so much so that there's concern about whether they, and not the fish they catch, are an endangered species. An organization called New Hampshire Community Seafood is launching an effort to get more Granite Staters interested in eating local seafood, with the hope that it'll provide a boost to fishermen. For our series Foodstuffs, NHPR's Peter Biello reports.
On a quiet and foggy morning, commercial lobster fishermen Lou Nardello pulls his boat into a dock in Seabrook. The 60-year-old first began fishing 35 years ago. After a long break, he recently returned to this line of work.
Concord Monitor
Community Seafood Program Lure Customers with Fresh Catch | April 22, 2017
The return of warm weather is sending commercial fishing boats back out into the ocean and re-awakening the growing local seafood movement, which seeks to help small fishermen, just as the local food movement has helped small farms.
“Fishermen are facing many problems and this isn’t the only answer, but it helps,” said Erik Chapman, acting director of the N.H. Sea Grant program at the University of New Hampshire and a cofounder of LocalCatch.org, which coordinates hundreds of direct-to-consumer seafood operations around the world.
Edible New Hampshire
NH Community Seafood Sets Ambitious Goal of 1,000 Members | April 12, 2017
New Hampshire Community Seafood has set an ambitious goal of 1,000 Community Supported Fishery (CSF) members to keep NH’s few remaining commercial ground fishermen in business. The CSF, a cooperative owned by Fishermen and consumers, offers residents a share of NH’s seafood catch at weekly pickup locations throughout the state and northern Massachusetts. By joining the CSF, community members provide direct support to fishermen in the form of higher income for their catch.
2016
AG & EATS
Guess What Consumers? You Can Support New Hampshire Fishermen | September 28, 2016
Nine months into this food systems reporting gig where I’ve done everything from cuddling with a heritage pig to chomping on fresh-picked mustard greens, there’s been a lingering question that’s bugged me all along.
What about the fish?
“The food system has not been paying attention to seafood,” Niaz Dorry, the coordinating director for Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, said. “Change is happening in land food. For me it’s sort of ironic that the only thing that we eat that had the word ‘food’ in it has not been included.”
Edible New Hampshire
Food Hubs in New Hampshire are all Over the Map - Literally | August 30, 2016
Along the seacoast, the Three River Farmers Alliance, a multifarm CSA and distribution outfit, recently pulled New Hampshire Community Seafood aboard its hub platform so it could market seafood alongside its collective menu of fresh produce and meats via a mobile app designed to work on both Apple and Android devices.
Hakai Magazine
United We Fish! | June 28, 2016
Every Friday afternoon, New Hampshire mom Kate Politano opens her garage door and rolls out a fridge. Starting at about 3 p.m., local residents trudge up her driveway and pick up their weekly allotment of fish—plastic bags of various weights and sizes—from the fridge’s three compartments labeled Quarter Share, Half Share, and Full Share. Some weeks it’s pollock. Other times it’s haddock. And sometimes it’s a lesser-known but plentiful species, like redfish.
Politano is a member of New Hampshire Community Seafood (NHCS), a cooperative of fishermen and consumers who have joined together to support the state’s disappearing small-scale fishing industry and its sustainable harvesting practices.
NH1 News
Fishermen, Seafood-lovers Mutually Benefit from NH Seafood Co-op | June 16, 2016
EXETER — If you like fresh seafood and want to help struggling New Hampshire fishermen survive, New Hampshire Community Seafood is worth considering.
Currently signing up customers for its eight-week summer session, it’s a cooperative of fishermen and consumers working to protect what’s left of the local fishing fleet.
“We have three boats out of New Hampshire," said David Goethel, a Hampton fisherman. "When we started with this we had 24. We had more than 100 boats back in 2000."
Guide to Buying Local NH Ingredients | March 2016
A good home cook, like a good restaurant chef, starts with the best ingredients. Source local for fresh products free from unnecessary additives. Local can mean your neighborhood farm, winter farmers market or delivery through Consumer Supported Agriculture. It might take a bit more time to find fresh, but the benefit is delicious.
The Square
On Board with the Dock-to-Dish Movement | Fall 2016
Captain Tommy Lyons passes three tuna fishing boats as he heads out of Hampton Harbor toward the once-legendary fishing grounds of Jeffreys Ledge. Twenty-five years ago, when he first started fishing commercially, Lyons would see up to 700 boats around him on this trip. Now, as he starts hauling his gillnets that stretch out for almost half a mile, there are no other boats in sight.
Sea Grant
Local Seafood: Sharing Seafood Stories | Spring 2016
As a tour guide, Sara Mirabilio, North Carolina Sea Grant fisheries specialist, excels at spotlighting the state’s coast.
In February, she led a seafood industry group on a whirlwind trip through Wanchese, Hatteras Island, Ocracoke and Carteret County. Participants hailed from the east and west coasts of the United States, the Great Lakes, Hawaii, and even Canada.
Fiddlehead
CSFS Provide Dock-To-Dish Peace of Mind | 2016
“We are the dock-to-dish connection for southern New Hampshire,” said Andrea Tomlinson, managing director of NHCS, headquartered in Portsmouth. “Ninety percent of the seafood sold in America is imported, approximately a month old and usually frozen. Everything we offer is netted by New Hampshire fishermen and women in the Gulf of Maine, and is delivered to your hands within one to two days of being caught. There is absolutely no way to get fresher fish – short of catching it yourself.”
New England Ocean Odyssey
Celebrate National Seafood Month with our Favorite Sustainable Seafood | October 25, 2016
Seafood and New England go together like peanut butter and jelly. In our country’s founding days, early Americans fished the bountiful seas and laid the foundation for a strong connection with the ocean and seafood that remains to this day.
2015
NH Business Review
Fishing for New Markets| December 23, 2015
New England wouldn’t be the same without the sight of fishing boats easing in and out of its working waterfronts. There is no better homage to this rich seafaring heritage than the visitors and residents alike who clamor for the region’s cod sandwiches, crisp haddock, buckets of steaming fried clams and, of course, the iconic overstuffed lobster roll.
Fishery Nation
New Hampshire Fishermen are Optimizing the Value of Their Catch | December 23, 2015
Leaving New Hampshire’s shores early in the morning in small 40-foot boats and returning in the afternoon to sell the day’s catch, groundfishermen seem to personify the state motto, “Live Free or Die.” But their numbers are shrinking. In communities across the country, a movement has sprouted up aimed at helping the local fishing industry create markets that deliver higher prices to fishermen for the fish they can catch.
NH Magazine
Best of NH 2015 Shops and Services | July 2015
Seafood CSF: “Remember to pick up your fish” is the e-mail reminder from New Hampshire Community Seafood in Portsmouth each week during the session that runs through December. They deliver fresh, locally caught fish across the southern tier of the state from Portsmouth to Peterborough to Nashua to Laconia and other pick-up points in between.
Edible New Hampshire
And So We Fish On | July 01, 2015
It doesn’t really bother David Goethel that farmers, not fishermen, have been elevated to rock star status across the Seacoast’s local food movement.
He just keeps fishing.
Goethel has weathered the vicissitudes of fortune as a New Hampshire fisherman from the helm of the Ellen Diane, the 44-foot dragger he’s captained since he had her built in 1982. He’s ridden the waves of ground fishery regulation; from the flow of past daily allowable catch rates to the ebb of current sector management schemes that apportion quotas to New England fisherman.
He keeps fishing.
The Sound
Empty Nets | June 3, 2015
David Goethel has been fishing since 1981. Now 61, Goethel was hoping to keep going out in his boat, the Ellen Diane, out of Hampton Harbor, well into his mid-60s. But new regulations on the amount of cod commercial fishermen can catch might mean an early retirement for Goethel. He hasn’t fished since November of last year and the new regulations, which went into effect in May and will continue through April of 2016, could mean a short season this year.
NH Public Radio
N.H. Fishing Industry In Crisis: The Search For Sustainability | May 13, 2015
New Hampshire and New England have been firmly on the local and sustainable food bandwagon for years now, and although Granite Staters are also enthusiastic consumers of seafood, it hasn't been until recently that some in the state have tried to bring that local sensibility to the fish they eat.
The Telegraph
Seafood Program Starts 2nd Year in Nashua | May 20, 2015
NASHUA – The second season of an unusual seafood program that links customers with New Hampshire fishermen got underway in Nashua Tuesday, even as depleted stocks of ocean cod may force the system to switch to oysters and other shellfish later this year.
NH Magazine
New Hampshire's Changing Fishing Industry | May 2015
What happened? Five years ago, Atlantic cod — a historically important fish to New England — was in abundance off the coast of New Hampshire. Three hundred years ago, the sea was thick with them. The pilgrims survived once the Native Americans showed them how to fish, and eventually cod was exported and early Americans prospered. Fishing methods were improved, for greater efficiencies, but at a toll. For the last several years the toll has been drastic — not only is the cod fishery in peril, but so is the livelihood of small-boat fishermen.
2014
Kid Fishmonger Blog
Atlantic Cod – A New England Tradition | September 6, 2014
Cod played an important role in the history of New England. Native American indians new of this valuable resource and it was a vitally important part of their diet. Evidence of this can be found in middens (old dump for domestic waste). It was believed that in 1621 while the pilgrims where starving, the native indians believing they would “receive blessings” showed the pilgrims how to catch cod and use the uneaten parts for fertilizer. The indians also introduced the pilgrims to quahogs, steamers, and lobster which they eventually ate out of desperation. Some say because of this introduction of cod to the pilgrims it opened up negotiations with the indians which eventually led to our modern day Thanksgiving.
Triple Pundit
The Difference Between Market-Driven and Sustainable Seafood | June 17, 2014
Because of the state of the fishing industry today, small fishermen find themselves squeezed between massive international fleets and heavily depleted stocks. In their fight for survival, many are finding themselves becoming both educators and advocates along the way. In grappling with these forces and trying to find a way to keep afloat, they may have just hit on a key principle that lies at the heart of the sustainability journey.
Union Leader
From the Boat to Your Town: NHCS Begins its Second Year | June 1, 2014
NH Public Radio
Learning To Love The Spiny Dogfish | October 31, 2013
The spiny dogfish is a conservation success story, going from worryingly low levels to incredible abundance. The new challenge is getting people to eat them.
Spiny dogfish are small, bottom-dwelling, grayish-brown sharks. 25 years ago, dogfish populations were so low the federal government had to ban fishing them in local waters.
Seacoast Online
For Ocean's Sake, Try 'Day Boat' Dogfish | October 2, 2013
Recently, a letter to the editor was published in the Portsmouth Herald that criticized the annual N.H. Fish and Lobster Festival, known locally as the “Fishtival,” for promoting the use of dogfish in local menus.
NewHampshire.com
NH Fishermen Now Selling Their Fresh Catches Across the State | September 29, 2013
A community-supported fishery has spread its net from Portsmouth to Peterborough since June.
Owners of fishing boats from Seabrook, Hampton, Rye Harbor and Portsmouth Harbor first organized to get fresh, locally caught fish to Seacoast residents, according to Sarah VanHorn, general manager of New Hampshire Community Seafood.
Channel 9 WMUR
Fishing Industry Looks for Solutions | August 15, 2013
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., met with fishermen in New Hampshire on Thursday to hear their concerns about the industry.
Seacoast Online
Struggling Fishermen Still Await Federal Disaster Relief | August 15, 2013
PORTSMOUTH — Eleven months after the U.S. Department of Commerce declared a disaster for the Northeast commercial fishing industry, fishermen have yet to see any money to help alleviate their financial hardship.
NH Public Radio
What The Hake? N.H.'s New C.S.F. Seeks To Sell Obscure, Plentiful And Equally Edible Fish | June 5, 2013
When we talk about local food in New Hampshire, most of us think of fruits and vegetables. But with our 18 miles of coastline, seafood has the potential to be a local food as well. This year’s big cuts to catch limits for fish like cod and haddock herald a rough year for New Hampshire ground fishermen. So they’re finding new ways to connect with local consumers to help them stay afloat. And their approach may be the first of its kind.
Union Leader
NH Fishermen Band Together To Sell Locally Caught Harvest | June 2, 2013
PORTSMOUTH — Got fish?
New Hampshire Community Seafood wants to give Granite Staters access to fresh fish, and is offering shares in a community supported fishery.
Fishing boats from Seabrook, Hampton, Rye Harbor and Portsmouth Harbor — 14 fishermen and their crew — have decided to organize a harvest cooperative, according to Sarah E. VanHorn, general manager of New Hampshire Community Seafood.
University of New Hampshire
UNH, More Than a Matter of Degree - Sarah VanHorn | May 21, 2013
UNH is a place that provides the culture to cultivate your ideas and dreams, and realize them through real-world opportunities. Go beyond the classroom at the University of New Hampshire.
2012
UNH Today
Great Fish Stories | September 13, 2012
My name is Sarah VanHorn, and I’m a senior marine biology and writing student at the University of New Hampshire. Born and raised on the coast of Southern Maine, I’ve forever been enchanted with all things ocean: from the seaweed to the salty water, from the lobster our local economy thrives on, to the phytoplankton that the whales feed on.
