A captain's week: how fuel costs are remaking Costa Mar's fishing economy

The sun was still low when Rodrigo Pérez walked the dock at Puerto Azul's smaller harbor, the one the cooperative uses. His boat, the Marisol, sat low in the water—a good sign, usually. But Pérez was not smiling. He stood with his hands on his hips, looking at the fuel gauge, then at his logbook, then back at the gauge again.

Pérez has fished these waters for thirty years. He knows the reef edges, the seasonal migrations, the weather that turns in an hour. What he does not know how to do is make the numbers work anymore. Diesel fuel, which cost him 2.40 florins per liter in June, now trades at 3.15 florins. That is a thirty-one percent increase in three months. A full tank—his boat burns through eight hundred liters on a good four-day run—now costs him 2,520 florins instead of 1,920. The difference is his profit.

"I can fish or I can feed my family," Pérez said, still looking at the gauge. "I cannot do both." Around him, the dock was quieter than usual. Two boats that normally sail on Mondays had not left. A third was being readied for sale. The cooperative's quota system, designed to protect the reef, suddenly faced a different pressure: the price of staying in business.