Fishing Industry Feels Diesel Cost Impact; Prices At Pier Double Over Last Year

CHATHAM – In just one week, the per-gallon cost of diesel at the fish pier, where most of the town’s commercial fishing fleet fuels up, jumped 35 cents. One fisherman saw the price increase between the time he pulled his vessel up to the pier and when he began fueling.

 On Monday, the price at the pump on the water-side of the pier packing facility was $6.44 per gallon, which includes an eight-cent town surcharge. The price of diesel at the pier has nearly doubled from this time last year, when the cost was $3.48 per gallon.

 The high cost is squeezing local fishermen as well as fish packing companies, both of which are paying seemingly ever-escalating fuel prices while the price of fish, at least at this time, remains stagnant.

 “It’s all on the logistics side,” said Matthew Belson, co-owner of Shellfish Broker LLC, which operates one of the two packing bays at the pier. “Supply chain logistics run on diesel.”

 Diesel prices have skyrocketed in recent months due to the Iran war and Russia’s war against Ukraine. According to the website Gasbuddy, as of Monday, the national average price of diesel was at a record $6.49 per gallon, an increase of 30.7 cents in the past week.

 “That hurts everybody,” said fisherman Sam Fuller, who said his vessel Mary Alice burns about 200 gallons a week. The increase is not sustainable, he said.

 “Unfortunately fishermen, we’re the end of the line,” he said. “We can’t raise our rates. Everything we’re using now is going up.” He added that when he went to a local fishing supply store to buy a scallop basket, he was told to buy it now because the price would soon double, because the basket was made in Canada and subject to tariffs.

 “It’s a big hit,” added lobsterman Ray Joseph. At one point the price of fuel at the pier jumped 60 cents in one day, he said. That’s $200 more out of his pocket “just in the blink of an eye.”

 “You just pay it,” he said. “If you don’t have any fuel, you can’t go.”

 “The problem is that the price fishermen are paid at the dock doesn’t go up when our costs go up,” said Doug Feeney, owner/operator of the Noah and president of the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative. The “skyrocketing” cost of fuel means that a trip that a few years ago cost hundreds of dollars is “now well over a thousand,” he wrote in an email.

 The hit is even worse for some local fishermen who transport their own fish to market; they’re paying the higher diesel cost to fuel both their boats and their trucks. Belson said it can now cost more than $300 to fill a box truck’s tank.

 The price of fin and shellfish isn’t increasing to make up for the additional costs, said Shannon Eldredge of the Fishing Partnership. She’s also involved in the Chatham nonprofit Women of Fishing Families, which provides assistance to fishing families facing financial problems. She said in an email that the group anticipates requests from fishing families as the season winds down and seasonal markets quiet, likely resulting in some prices dropping further while costs, especially fuel, continue to rise.

 It’s not just commercial fishermen who are feeling the pinch. Charter boats at Rock Harbor in Orleans are paying nearly $6.50 a gallon, said Captain Hap Farrell, and while the season is winding down, the high fuel price is beginning to hit them, he said.

 Fuller said he’s changing the way he fishes to adapt to the current conditions — steaming slower, hauling more lobster pots per trip and thus cutting back on the number of trips. But he’s seen such a steady increase in fuel prices that he’s not sure that will make a big difference. He said while he was at the pier getting fuel recently, the attendant received a phone call and the price immediately went up five cents per gallon.

 “I love to go fishing,” he said. “It’s too bad our costs are going up.”

 This time of year lobster prices typically start to rise. “I’d like to be optimistic and believe the price of lobster will go up in the next couple of weeks,” said Joseph, adding that it will at least begin to address the rising costs of doing business.

 Feeney noted that the goal of the Chatham Harvesters Cooperative was to have more control over the price of fish caught by local commercial fishermen.

 “We know there will always be global forces outside of our control that squeeze small fishing businesses,” he said. “Through the co-op, we’re making sure our fishermen are paid a fair price that reflects the true cost of going fishing and keeps local boats on the water.”