Tag Archives: diesel prices
Low prices, high costs face southwest Nova Scotia lobster fishermen
As captains and crews wait for an opening in the weather to drop their gear off southwest Nova Scotia, they’ve also got other big worries: low prices for their catch and historically high costs. The price at the wharf is expected to be somewhere around $6 to $6.25 a pound, down nearly half from $11.25 on opening day for Lobster Fishing Area 34 last season. The neighbouring LFA 33, which runs from about Halifax to Cape Sable Island, opened earlier this week but weather has meant most captains there have only had the opportunity to haul their traps once. >click to read< 16:08
Diesel prices and post-Brexit quotas add to fishermen’s woes
Each time West Cork fisherman Daniel Healy sets out to sea, he wonders whether it’s worth his time. Soaring diesel prices, he said, are putting his livelihood at risk. “Per trip, with five days out, at 1,000 litres a day – that’s over €5,000. It’s a big bill for me,” Mr Healy told Prime Time. He has been fishing from Castletownbere for the last 29 years. For the first time, he has to worry whether he can pay the wages of his crew. The diesel is probably taking about nearly half of our gross earnings, every trip,” he said. “The crew were wondering where all the money was going, until I showed them the receipts and how much the fuel is.” But, due to stricter post-Brexit quotas that were introduced last year, fishermen cannot increase their catch to compensate for their losses. >click to read< 18:50
Rising diesel prices push UK’s fishing industry to the brink
Trawlers and commercial fishers are now struggling under the weight of price rises that mean in many cases tens of thousands of pounds extra in diesel for a fishing trip leading to take-home pay that is below the minimum wage. The biggest trawler in Brixham, the Julie of Ladram, returned to harbour after seven days at sea earlier this month, and came close to making a loss. The captain, Sean Beck, took home just £440 for a week’s work – the equivalent of £2.60 an hour for being responsible for the ship and crew 24 hours a day. “It’s a stressful time for my family. And it’s stressful at sea – fishing’s not always great. As a skipper it’s a big responsibility to make the boat pay and make sure everybody gets a wage.”>click to read< 09:42
Gasoline, diesel prices put squeeze on Hampton Roads commercial fishing
“It’s going to get to a point where the customers won’t want to buy because it’s so outrageously expensive,” said Kyle Robbins. “Everyday it costs me about $150 to $200 just in fuel to leave the dock,” Robbins said. Six days a week, Robbins ventures out on a crabbing boat to haul in hundreds of pounds of crabs from the Chesapeake Bay. But the rising cost of fuel for those boats has caused his crabbing habits to change. “In certain times, maybe we can travel another 10 to 15 miles to catch more crabs, but we’re not wanting to spend the fuel, so we’re traveling only two to three miles,” he said. “It’s a lose-lose situation.” Video, >click to read< 08:15
Why every American should care that diesel prices are surging across the country
To many Americans, including politicians, diesel prices are so removed from their version of reality that they often dismiss the importance of diesel to the U.S. and global economies. Today’s truckstop retail diesel prices hit a new record of $5.32/gallon. However, diesel is the fuel that drives the economy and leaves major industries vulnerable to cost shocks. Without diesel fuel, the U.S. economy would collapse in a matter of days. Our supply chains would completely shrivel, almost overnight. Trucks use it to haul our goods across the country. Of all Class 8 trucks (the big ones), 97% use diesel. A world without diesel would mean that our grocery stores and restaurants would run out of food, retail store shelves would be empty, and hospitals would run out of medical supplies. But that is just scratching the surface. Farmers use diesel to power most of their machinery. Nearly every fishing vessel around the world uses diesel for power. Without diesel, our fishing food supply chain would collapse. >click to read< 17:39
