The Diesel Arithmetic: A Captain's Week in the Shrinking Margins

Jesús Morales sits in the wheelhouse of the María Dolores before dawn, waiting for the light to change. The boat rocks gently against the dock in Puerto Azul's working harbour, and the captain runs his thumb over a fuel receipt from three days ago. The number on it — 847 florins for a single tank — is the kind of figure that used to come once a month. Now it comes twice.

The small-boat fishing cooperative that Morales has belonged to for nearly three decades is facing a collision between two federal pressures. The Federal Fisheries Authority has tightened catch quotas in the name of reef protection. At the same time, global fuel markets have lifted diesel prices beyond anything the region's captains predicted when they planned their season.

Morales is not alone in the arithmetic. Across Costa Mar's working harbours, captains are doing the same calculation: how many days can the boat afford to go out, given what the quota allows them to bring back and what the fuel now costs to get there.

On a morning in late October, with the dry season still holding the weather steady, Morales is willing to talk about it.