As winds whipped through Seabrook Harbor on a frigid January day, Lissa Vogt of Haverhill, Mass., had plenty of motivation to brave the elements and claim the prize waiting for her at the end of a pier.
For $72, Vogt had jumped at a first-time opportunity to be a shareholder in the seasonal shrimp harvest off New Hampshire’s seacoast. Now the time had come to reap half of her reward: 20 pounds of shrimp – enough to share with friends and family, and fresher than any she’d find in a supermarket.
“It’s healthy, it’s fresh, and we’re supporting a local industry off our own shores,’’ Vogt said. “I want these fishermen to succeed. Some have been doing this for generations, and I don’t want to see it die out.’’
About 80 area households are eating extra helpings of shrimp this winter as they participate in a pilot program designed to help local fishermen, consumers, and the environment. They’re members of a new community-supported fishery, launched this month by the Yankee Fisherman’s Cooperative, which includes more than 60 fishing vessels on the seacoast.