KENNEBUNK, Maine, May 21 - Across multiple fishing regions, operators are cutting days at sea as diesel prices surge, a development fishermen say is eroding already thin margins and altering fishing patterns.
Captain Chris Welch, who runs the lobstering vessel Quality Time out of Kennebunk, Maine, said he is hauling pots far less frequently this spring. Where he would normally check and rebait traps every four or five days, he has stretched that interval to seven to 10 days to conserve fuel. "It cuts into your profitability at the end of the day," Welch said after refueling on a rainy morning. "We are having to pay much more attention to our bottom line."
Fishermen interviewed across the United States and industry representatives in Europe and Asia described a similar pattern: higher diesel prices, linked by many to the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, are prompting captains to reduce trip frequency or keep vessels tied up until economics improve.
Operational and market pressures
Fuel is one of the largest single costs for many fishing operations. The average price of a gallon of diesel recently reached $5.65, up from $3.55 a year earlier and nearing the 2022 record of $5.82, according to data from AAA's Fuel Prices monitor. That jump is forcing some operators to alter normal operating rhythms.
On the U.S. Gulf Coast, some shrimpers are no longer filling 15,000-gallon tanks and are skipping outings, said Deborah Long, media liaison at the Southern Shrimp Alliance. Even before fuel increases, the shrimp sector had been under pressure from imports, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported drove down the industry's value by 50% between 2021 and 2023. "That jump in price has taken away their entire margin," Long said.
In Alaska, where fuel can account for up to 40% of trip costs, operators felt an abrupt rise that arrived just as many were topping up tanks for the season. "It went up over a dollar a gallon from one week to the next and right before everybody was filling up with full tanks to start the season," said Linda Behnken, a Sitka-based fisherman and executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association. While halibut and sablefish prices are currently supporting continued trips, she said diesel costs could make the upcoming, typically less-profitable salmon season uneconomic.
Back in Maine, Sonny Beal, president of the Maine Lobstermen's Association, noted that bait, rope and other input costs have also climbed with broader inflation, and said many members are "spending fewer days on the water." Welch cautioned that how these local reductions in catch frequency will translate into summer lobster prices is unclear, in part because distributors and dealers that send lobsters to restaurants face higher fuel bills as well.
Global pullback
Reports from outside the United States show similar contractions in fishing effort. In South Korea's South Gyeongsang province, the number of vessels operating for species such as anchovy, gizzard shad, yellowtail and mackerel has fallen by more than 30% since the conflict began, according to Lee Gi-sam, secretary general for the national fishermen's alliance.
Indonesian boat owners and associations said many vessels are remaining in port because fish prices do not cover the elevated diesel costs. Akhiq Falih Al Arif, who owns boats on the north coast of Pati regency in Central Java, described most boats as mostly tied up. Muhammad Billahmar, secretary general of the Indonesian tuna association, said boats already at sea would continue operating but those that had returned to port would not head back out under current fuel prices.
European fleets have also reported reductions in effort. The Dutch Fishers Union noted that, in the weeks following the outbreak of the war, half of its vessels were not fishing and remained tied up.
Wider food system implications and official observations
The shrinking of fishing activity arrives amid broader concern about disruptions to the global food system tied to the conflict, which has also affected fertilizer shipments and farmer planting decisions. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said past fuel spikes have not significantly changed the global fish catch, but cautioned that if elevated fuel prices persist over an extended period, pressure on the sector could intensify and alter market dynamics. Manuel Barange, director of FAO's Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, noted the potential for longer-term effects if high fuel costs endure.
Fuel price dynamics are also a political vulnerability. Consumers and businesses are already sensitive to rising energy costs. The Republican party, led by President Donald Trump, has sought to engage the commercial fishing industry as a constituency, including through an executive order last year aimed at reducing regulation and promoting technologies to enhance competitiveness, a move observers see as part of broader political outreach to the sector.
What fishermen say
For many small-scale and mid-size operators, decisions about whether to go out hinge on a narrow calculation. Captain Welch and others described the arithmetic: frequency of trap checks, fuel burn, and the logistics of dealers and transporters that must also absorb higher fuel costs. "This affects us every day," Welch said. "A lot of us are spending fewer days on the water," added Beal.
Those on the front lines of fishing stress that some fisheries still support regular trips because prices for certain species remain strong, while other seasonal fisheries may be curtailed as economics turn unfavorable. The scale of the response varies by region, species targeted, vessel size and the local structure of the seafood supply chain.
As fleets weigh whether to steam or stay tied up, fishing communities and downstream buyers confront the uncertainty of how sustained fuel increases will reshuffle effort, catches and market flows in the months ahead.