June 13, 2013 — The Seacoast has sole. We have yellowtail flounder, Arcadian redfish, American plaice and Gulf of Maine winter flounder. We have Dayboat Dogfish, skate wings, silver hake, herring, butterfish and monkfish. Yes, we are more than just haddock and now, you can get a share of the bounty each and every week, thanks to New Hampshire Community Seafood.
It's a new CSF (Community Supported Fishery) headed up by Sarah VanHorn, CSF manager, with Josh Wiersma, executive director of the organization in general. VanHorn has been working with local fishermen since 2012, when she received the N.H. Sea Grant's Brian E. Doyle Fellowship and had the opportunity of fishing with each of the local fishermen who will be supplying the fish for the CSF. She also documented their stories through photographs and narratives in her blog Fishues: NH Seacoast's Fish Issues.
Here's how it works — just choose your CSF type and go to one of the pick-up spots each week for your share. You can to to the website to see information and pricing, but the basics go like this: Weekly Groundfish Share, which is 2 pounds of filets a week for eight weeks. It includes some of the more common local fish like Arcadian redfish, Gulf of Maine cod, Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder, Atlantic pollock, American plaice, gray sole, Gulf of Maine winter flounder and white hake.
You can also get whole fish, which is interesting. The pollock, silver hake, and redfish is gutted at sea. Variations on that theme include flounder, which is delivered whole just as it's caught. You can also get a bi-weekly share of underdog fish, the less familiar fish we should all be eating including dayboat dogfish (gutted, bled and brined at sea for unique freshness and quality), skate wings, silver hake, herring, butterfish or monkfish. They're also considering lobster, if they get enough interest.
The shares run eight weeks but they'll keep on going in eight week increments back-to-back with a break in the winter. They even just started in Manchester, which is great for them since they're not lucky enough to be right by the sea as we are. Now, why is this important? We need to honor our local seafood by enjoying it here, ourselves. According to the Web site, 98 percent of the fish we land leaves the Seacoast.
Read the full story at Seacoast Online