A captain's week on the water as fuel costs squeeze the fleet

Captain Hernán Solís wakes at four-thirty on a Tuesday morning in the fishing quarter of Puerto Azul, before the rain comes. The sky is still dark; the ocean two blocks away is a sound more than a sight. He has been captain of the María Concepción for twenty-three years, and the ritual is unchanged: coffee, a check of the marine forecast from the Federal Hydro Authority's weather station, a walk to the dock to see which boats are fueling up and which are staying in.

This week, five of the cooperative's twelve boats did not leave port. Three had mechanical problems. Two had no fuel budget left. "The margins are gone," Solís said, standing on the dock with his hands in his pockets, watching the María Concepción bob against her mooring. "We catch what we catch. The price is what the price is. But fuel—fuel is the thing we cannot control."

Over the past eighteen months, diesel costs have climbed forty percent. The cooperative's fuel subsidy, negotiated with the Regional Marine Ministry in 2023, expired in April. Since then, each captain has absorbed the full price at the pump. Solís's weekly fuel bill has risen from 280 florins to 420. His catch—red snapper, grouper, small pelagics—has remained steady in size but fallen in value as the market has softened.

The question facing the cooperative is no longer how to fish more efficiently. It is whether the economics of small-boat fishing in Costa Mar can survive at all.