(Photo: WBOC)CAMBRIDGE, Md.- Watermen Scott Todd and his crew are in unchartered territory. They are sitting on the sidelines as valuable days of crabbing go by the wayside.
"The diesel fuel prices went back again and that was the borderline for us and we just had to stop bring everything home, and getting it ready for the fall run," Todd said.
Diesel fuel prices are up over $4 a gallon at some marinas. Meanwhile, Todd is trying to cut back any way he can.
"We are burning about 30-35 gallons a day and when we start back and head to the Western Shore that will bump up to 50 gallons a day so we are looking at a couple hundred dollars a day just for diesel fuel," Todd said.
Crabbers are not the only ones who are feeling the pinch at the pump, these high gas prices are hanging up the entire seafood industry.
"It's increasing our cost of doing business just like commercial watermen and everyone else," said Jack Brooks, co-owner of J.M. Clayton Co.
Brooks said that delivering to three different states can be costly.
"We deliver to southern Pennsylvania over to the beaches in Delaware and Maryland, Baltimore and Washington regularly and the you know the fuel costs are beating us all up," Brooks said.
How high will they go? When will they fall?
Questions weighing on the minds of watermen of watermen and crabbing companies alike.
