Please see: Climbing Crude and Demand Destruction
"An ocean of expense; High diesel prices cut boat operators' profits, keep many craft moored" by Robert Gavin, Globe Staff | July 2, 2008
Joseph Orlando and his son Mario dragged the waters off Cape Ann for nearly a week, burning 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel to catch a load of cod that sold in Gloucester for $5,600. The fuel bill: $4,400.
"Six days of work, and we didn't make any money," said Orlando, 54, rattling off other expenses, including $300 for ice. "This fuel thing is just overwhelming."
Soaring energy prices are hitting the waterfront hard, squeezing fishermen, pleasure boaters, charter vessels, whale watches, and other marine businesses. In many ways, they're getting hit harder than their land-based counterparts. On the water, "fuel efficient" means a couple miles to the gallon.
It also means recreational fishermen, tourists, and ferry riders are paying more. The Steamship Authority recently raised rates to cover rising fuel costs, adding as much as $2 to one-way fares on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard ferries. At Boston's Long Wharf, Boston Harbor Cruises added a $2-per-ticket fuel surcharge for its whale watches and Provincetown ferry. In Plymouth, Capt. John Boats added a $3 per ticket surcharge for whale watches, recreational fishing trips, and its own ferry to Provincetown.
But surcharges cover only part of surging diesel prices, which have nearly doubled in the past year to about $4.50 a gallon from $2.60, said Bob Avila, sales director and a boat captain at Capt. John. A four-hour whale watch, he noted, can burn 500 gallons - or more - of fuel.
"Situation: Bad," Avila said. "This is just crazy."
At the same time, events on land are making a bad situation worse. The combination of rising gas prices and a weak economy are leading consumers to cut spending, translating into fewer customers. At Capt. John, for example, tour buses that last year arrived full for whale watches now pull in with empty seats, said Avila.
I went on a whale watch once.
It was a WASTE of TIME, MONEY and FUEL!!
We got out there and DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING!!!!
Fishermen face tougher choices. With diesel prices almost doubling, but lobster prices unchanged, Tom O'Reilly, a lobsterman out of Plymouth, said he's leaving his boat tied up most days. He tends his traps no more than twice a week now, and has had to take another job.
"The fuel costs and the bait costs just outweigh what you're catching," he said.
With cod prices half of what they were this spring, Orlando, the Gloucester fishermen, is also weighing when to leave the dock. With federal regulations restricting the number of days he can fish, Orlando must choose each fishing day carefully, gambling that cod prices at the Gloucester auction will be high enough to offset fuel costs when he returns.
"We always thought regulations would do us in, but now it seems it's going to be fuel," said Orlando, whose family has fished for generations. "I have a boat that's worth the world to me. What do I do?"
They always told me "DO WHAT YOU LOVE!"
Oh, right!
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