Maine lobstermen squeezed by soaring fuel prices

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01]Captain Chris Welch is catching fewer lobsters this spring because of spiking oil prices. Whereas in the past you might haul four or five days a week, we're hauling three or four. We're letting the lobsters crawl into the traps a little bit longer, let the bait fish longer, and a few less trips a week um equals burnt less fuel burnt.

[00:00:19]Fuel is a leading expense for fishing fleets, which might require tens of thousands of gallons to fill their boats. The US-Israeli war on Iran has driven up those costs. Currently the prices are the highest I remember them in the last two or three years, maybe four years.

[00:00:36]Um it cuts into your profitability at the end of the day. Welch is one of many fishermen around the world spending more time at dock this spring.

[00:00:46]That's according to Reuters interviews with a half dozen US fishermen and fishing groups and others globally. The average price of a gallon of diesel hit $5.65 this week, up from $3.55 a year ago and near a record high set in 2022, according to AAA's fuel prices monitor.

[00:01:07]The pain is being felt from Maine's rocky coast to South Korea and the Netherlands. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said past fuel price spikes haven't had much impact on the global fish catch, but if the elevated costs stick around, the group says pressure on the sector could intensify.

[00:01:27]The US commercial fishing industry has been courted by President Donald Trump as a political constituency, but rising fuel prices, already a major concern for consumers and businesses, could pose a vulnerability for Trump's Republican Party in the November midterm elections. And Welch says it's not just fuel. So last year this time we were spending around $0.65 a pound for bait.

[00:01:51]Um currently the last I knew was around $0.85 a pound. Profitability is changed by the cost of our products that we have to use whether it be fuel, bait, the cost of traps, um, the cost of any type of mechanical fixes for our boats. Walch says it remained unclear how Maine's reduced seafood catch might affect local lobster prices this summer when swarms of vacationers hit the state. We go out and catch as many lobsters as we can and um, at the end of the day if you're making money, that's the goal. Um, but there are days that you may go and not turn a profit.