Q&A
Crude Awakenings
Simon Pidcock, owner of Ocean Ecoventures in Cowichan Bay, B.C.
Last Updated: Monday, June 30, 2008 | 2:42 PM ET
By Eve Savory CBC News
Simon Pidcock is lucky: His business, Ocean Ecoventures of Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island, lets him indulge his passion for the ocean and its life. But Pidcock is beginning to wonder whether he can keep the business afloat. The twin 140-horsepower motors that power his 24-foot (7.3-metre) Zodiac whale-watching boat burn between 80 and 200 litres of fuel a trip, and rising fuel prices are eating into profits.
Simon Pidcock at the wheel of his whale-watching boat. (Ivan Reiff) CBCnews.ca: How has the price of fuel affected you?
Simon Pidcock: It's huge. When I started at the business, I never thought it would be our biggest expense, but by far it's our biggest expense. Much more than insurance or anything else.
Since we started, the price has really cut into our profits hugely. I would say probably about 25 per cent so far, and I just see it getting worse, personally. I was just speaking with some folks from Germany in here and they are up around $2.20 a litre and it's coming our way.
I don't know if my business is really a dying breed in that way, because if the fuel gets much more expensive, it's just not economically feasible.
So if fuel prices doubled from now, how could you survive?
It's my passion, so it's not something I want to give up, but the cost is going to be raised and it's going to be passed on to my customers.
'I know there are a lot of companies in the industry right now that are on the verge of not making it 'cause of the higher costs and fewer people travelling.'—Simon Pidcock
I feel that even now I'm having a really hard time. This will be my sixth year in business. We started at $99 six years ago and up until this year I had not raised my prices at all. This year I had to raise my prices by 10 per cent, and I had a really hard time going over the $100 mark — and now we're at $109 instead of $99. And it's only a $10 difference, but in people's minds it sounds like so much more.
Hopefully, my customers will feel it's worth it and will be willing to pay more. It's such a hard position to be in, though.
And many of your customers, I assume, are coming from elsewhere and may not want to pay the fuel cost to get here.
That's right. And I think we're really seeing it this year.
In the whale-watching industry as a whole, everyone's numbers are down this year, and I think that's due to three things. I think it's due to the fuel, world economy and weather. All the companies in this industry, all their prices have gone up this year across the board. I think they will continue to.
I know there are a lot of companies in the industry right now that are on the verge of not making it 'cause of the higher costs and fewer people travelling.
I do think the rise in fuel [prices] is a good thing, as well, because it's putting pressure on us to move away from fossil fuels and look for renewable resources. Especially when you're out watching these whales and they are being affected by all the petrochemicals that are in the water.
So I think we are being forced collectively — that is, the world — to move towards more sustainable energy. And I think that that's just really important.
