FISHERS fear they may be forced to close as spiralling fuel prices chew up already meagre profits.

"Unless we have some significant changes in our profitability, the industry can't afford to continue paying these costs. It will go broke," Queensland Seafood Industry senior vice-president Robin Hansen said.

With diesel fuel as high as $1.80 a litre, fishers were unable to get a return on their catch and were being driven into debt, Mr Hansen, who chairs the State Trawl Committee, said.

"I know there are many fishermen who now can't afford to go to sea."

Third-generation fisher Theresa Low operates two prawn trawlers, sells her catch direct at Rusty's Markets and owns Portsmith’s GNM Chandlery.

"It's a shame, but it's looking for us like it might be the end of an era, we're not sure we'll be able to survive," Ms Low said.

With zones close to the coast closed in a bid to keep fisheries sustainable, sending one diesel trawler on the four-day trip to the Northern prawn fishery needed 30,000 litres of fuel, Ms Low said.

"That's about $51,000 just to go to sea," she said.

"The fishermen come into my shop and they're just so negative, they've got debts on their boats, they can't pay for their fuel."

Ms Low called for governments to put money in to research alternative fuels.

"They're the things we need to look at and we need to do it in a bloody hurry, or there won't be a fishing industry in Australia."

Unlike other industries, fishers are unable to pass their costs on to consumers, with market prices kept low by cheap imports, Ms Low said.

Queensland Seafood Marketers Association president James Fogarty also predicted disaster unless fishers could get a better price to offset fuel costs. "They will just tie their boats up," he said.

"They won't be able to afford to go to work."

Mr Fogarty believed the answer lay in a marketing push to the domestic market.

"If you get the demand up, you get the price up and then people can start to make some money," he said.

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