BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Higher gas prices are cutting into the profits of charter fishermen who are now weighing, due to the war in Iran, whether to charge customers more to take a fishing trip.
It’s spring break so the demand for fishing is there at Port Canaveral, but if gas prices continue increasing, Captain Jamie Glasner, who owns Fin & Fly Fishing Charters, told your Cape Canaveral Community Correspondent James Sparvero he might consider charging guests an extra $50 or $60 as a fuel surcharge.
“We’re too afraid to really raise our rates because we don’t wanna deter customers away from us, but at the same time, we’ve still gotta be profitable,” Glasner said.
At the Sunrise Marina, Kelvin James from England said a surcharge wouldn’t deter him from taking a fishing trip.
“No, not if I’m able to go and I was on holiday, a vacation,” James said. “Yeah, I’d pay it. ‘Cause you’re in America. It’s expensive, anyway, isn’t it?”
AAA says diesel is so expensive right now, its price is climbing even faster than gasoline.
Glasner said he’s weathered fluctuating gas prices over the years before.
“We’ve been through it before. I don’t think it’s going to get too crazy, like it did during COVID,” he said. “I hope not.”
Like spring break now, Glasner said during the pandemic years, after the lockdowns, he didn’t have any trouble finding customers.
He said he and his captains will continue taking as many fishing as they can no matter how high fuel prices go.