SEABROOK — Selectmen yesterday gave their preliminary OK to what they considered an exciting plan by the Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative to build a fish processing plant that would provide local consumers with a new source of fresh, locally caught and filleted fish.
The plant would be at its current location on land leased from the town along Seabrook Harbor, along Route 1A.
Still in the early stages of the approval process, the selectmen's overwhelming verbal support of the idea and the beleaguered commercial fishing industry is enough to start the ball rolling for the co-op. It can go ahead and apply for the government grants that will pay for three-quarters of the construction cost. Although it won't cost the town or its taxpayers a cent, the town will be in partnership with the co-op on the project since it will be built on town-owned property."
"It's on the town's land that we lease from them, so we need their blessing to go ahead," said Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative manager Bob Campbell.
Currently, any commercial fishing boat can sell its catch to the co-op, which in turn sells whole fish to processing plants. But less than 3 percent of fish caught by local New Hampshire fishermen remains in New Hampshire, since processing plants are in Massachusetts, Campbell said. Those plants fillet the fish caught in New Hampshire and resell it.
Selling whole fish will continue under the new plan, Campbell said, but after building the plant the co-op will process commercially caught fish as well. After processing, fishermen can take back their catch and sell it themselves, or have the co-op market sell it for them, Campbell said.
The co-op's plant will cut out the middlemen, Campbell said, and increase the value of the fish asset for fishermen and the local economy. In addition, the co-op can put New Hampshire's fish harvest in local supermarkets, on the plates of Granite State restaurants and even in the refrigerators of local homes.
"The farmers started (the trend)," Campbell told selectmen. "There's a huge market for locally caught product. There are local supermarkets that are very interested in this."
Campbell said with a local processing plant, shoppers won't have to buy shrimp or groundfish caught, frozen and flown in from foreign countries like Iceland. With a fish processing plant in Seabrook, shoppers could end up looking in the fish showcase at a local supermarket and see the date and place the fish was caught, and even the name of the boat that caught it.
"We're processing (plant) limited in New Hampshire," said Dr. Ken LaValley, of UNH's Extension and Sea Grant programs, who along with Chris Duffy from the Small Business Development Center have guided the co-op on the project. "This is a great opportunity for Seabrook to be a hero."
Duffy said the numbers show that the co-op can build the plant and produce a pound of cleaned, cut fish ready for the consumers at a competitive price.
And nothing will go to waste, Campbell said, because the fish byproduct after processing will be sold to lobstermen for bait at a low cost, and anything else will go off site for compost. The co-op is even looking into solar panels to reduce its carbon footprint.
The "back of the envelope" estimate of the value of the project is about $1 million to build and equip the 60-foot-by-120-foot fish processing center that will generate as many as 10 new jobs for the community, and hopefully sustain the jobs of the 61 members of the Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative, Campbell said.
The project is part of the fight for survival by local fishermen and a way to improve the financial plight of the commercial fishing industry in New Hampshire that's been under stress for years due to government regulation.
Yankee's current facility was allowed to be built on land it leases from the town, which was given to Seabrook by Public Service of New Hampshire. PSNH had used the land as a docking site while it was building the nuclear power plant across the harbor decades ago.
In 1990, Yankee Fisherman's Cooperative was formed to help the local commercial fishing industry, whose members have been negatively affected by federally imposed fishing limits and regulations that dramatically cut earning power and reduced the area's fishing fleet. With the closing of the Portsmouth Fishermen's Cooperative years ago, Seabrook's co-op is the only one left to help those still trying to make a living from New Hampshire's 400-year-old fishing industry.
Yet, federal regulations have only gotten stiffer over the years. The newest set of groundfishing regulations put into effect by federal agencies last year have further reduced the income of local fishermen by about half, hastening the need for the processing venture, Campbell said.
Duffy said the plans — drawn for free by TMC Architects — are for a plant big enough to make the project financially viable, but not so big it can't sustain itself because there aren't enough fish to process. The hope is to have five fish cutters working, with another three to four support staff to process fish from any New Hampshire commercial fishermen. There are even plans for a retail store at the plant, where the public can walk in and buy fresh right off the boats.
"This is a great project for the community," said Selectman Bob Moore, adding he's 100 percent behind it.
Duffy said 50 percent of the capital funding will come from a grant from federal Economic Development Authority, another 25 percent from grants from local economic development corporations, and the remaining 25 percent from a loan from those economic development corporations to the co-op.
The grants do not have to be paid back, Duffy said, and the co-op will be solely responsible for paying back the loan from proceeds from the processing plant. There isn't a financial risk to the town, he added.
Selectman Aboul Khan promised to do everything possible to help the project along but asked that the co-op consider opening its facility to educate local children. Children are the future legislators and policy makers of tomorrow and need to understand the effect regulations have on the fishing industry, Khan said.
Selectman Brendan Kelly said the co-op's plan for the processing plant is a "last stand" in the survival of New Hampshire's fishing industry.
"But, the people who go down to sea in ships are the ultimate survivors," Kelly added.
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