PORTLAND – Maine fishermen are getting a measure of relief after being buffeted by sharply rising fuel prices that added hundreds of dollars to fill-up bills for captains and crews.

“It puts quite a crimp in the paycheck,” said Allan Walls, captain of the fishing boat Heidi & Heather.

Walls acknowledged there’s not much he can do about the prices he has to pay for a fill-up, which last week cost $1,064 for 814 gallons of diesel fuel.

Prices began to retreat downward last week, easing the financial burden for the 10,300 men and women who fish in Maine. Prices send ripples through the economy because the industry generates more than 26,000 jobs in coastal Maine and had an economic impact in 2001 of more than $860 million.

The fuel price shock hit after financial damage had already been done to fishermen, who were struggling from the effects of a shortened season.

In early March, diesel prices peaked in the $1.50 per gallon range, or about 45 cents a gallon more than fishermen were paying a year earlier.

The change translated for many into several hundred dollars per tankful of fuel, expenses that fishing boat captains and their crews had to absorb.

“Every penny that fuel goes up is a penny less that they can split,” said David Leeman, president and general manager of Vessel Services Inc. on the Portland Fish Pier.

Although fishing has been good recently, the fish prices haven’t risen correspondingly with fuel prices, according to Maggie Raymond, owner of the 83-foot dragger Olympia and executive director of the trade group Associated Fisheries of Maine.

“It’s very expensive. We burn a lot of fuel – there’s no way around it,” said Raymond, who recently paid nearly $7,000 when her boat fueled up before a fishing run.

“When these prices go quite high, we really have nobody to pass that off to, as other businesses do,” said Raymond. “We have to absorb those increases ourselves.”