August 21, 2020 — Andrea Tomlinson often worries about the future of New Hampshire commercial fishing.
“Our local fishermen are in danger of becoming extinct,” she says.
As the manager of NH Community Seafood, a fishing cooperative aimed at protecting and expanding New Hampshire’s seafood industry, Tomlinson has seen up-close the struggles of the state’s fishing businesses. Each year, additional challenges and burdensome regulations are piled upon the shoulders of small fishermen. In the 1990s, there were about 100 groundfish boats that called New Hampshire waters home. By 2019, there were only eight. The lobster fishing industry is facing similar decline.
Commercial fishing has turned into big business. Small-scale, locally owned fishing operations have considerable difficulty competing with consolidated national fishing companies. John Borden, the captain of a local lobster boat, says he and fellow fishermen are up against stiff competition.