Fuel costs squeeze Costa Mar's smallest boats

Captain Ramón Díaz stands on the dock at Puerto Azul's northern pier, one hand on the rail of his thirty-foot wooden boat, the other holding a receipt from the fuel depot. The numbers on the paper have not changed since yesterday, but his expression suggests they might as well have doubled. Fuel costs have risen eighteen percent in the past eight weeks, and for a captain running a single-boat operation with a crew of three, the margin between profit and ruin has narrowed to a few litres.

Díaz is not alone. The independent fishing cooperatives that supply much of Costa Mar's fresh catch—and employ nearly four hundred working captains—are entering what some call the season of hard choices. Federal fuel subsidies for the fishing sector expired at the end of May, and the market price for marine diesel has climbed steadily since. For larger commercial operations with multiple vessels, the cost is a line item on a spreadsheet. For Díaz and captains like him, it is a question of whether the next trip breaks even.

The crisis arrives at an awkward moment for Costa Mar's marine economy. Eco-tourism arrivals have rebounded faster than forecasters predicted, dive cooperatives are running at near capacity, and the regional government has been marketing the waters as a model of sustainable management. But the boats that supply the restaurants where tourists eat, and the guides who depend on healthy fish populations, are now caught between rising operational costs and a federal policy that no longer cushions the impact.