MOSS LANDING, Calif. - If you think it's bad to fill up your car, just imagine local fishermen have to fill up their boats. It costs them thousands of dollars.
"I'm probably going to get six to 700 gallons," says Tom Hart, a commercial fisherman. "Cha-ching. Right? It's a lot different than filling up your car."
Hart spent $2,400 to fill up his boat, paying four dollars a gallon. It's his biggest expense. As prices go up, so does his overhead.
"It's going to be huge,especially during tuna season," says Hart. "We are fishing 200-300 miles offshore."
His problems could be passed on to you.
"It's going to make it harder for me," says Hart. "I think as the summer progresses, people are going to see the price of fish and stuff go up."
Dennis Long of Woodward Marine agrees and said it could also change the type of fish we get at restaurants and stores.
"They won't have good fish," says Long. "They will have to import it with who has cheaper fuel. It would be older for sure. It wouldn't be fresh fish."
Long sells fuel to these fishermen. He said the price he charges jumped $0.40 in the last three weeks. If it gets any higher, he said it will probably cost a lot of people their jobs.
"I'm going to be selling less fuel," says Long. "The guys won't be afford to go fishing if the prices go up much higher."
But for Hart, despite these prices, he's not going to give up his livelihood.
"I'm so numb from taking hits all my life," says Hart. "I just keep going."
Submitted by Azenith Smith, Central Coast News
