Page 13: of Marine News Magazine (January 2018)

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in 2015 (60), while California (47), Alaska (41), Wash- cursion services (whale watches, casino boats, day cruises, ington (40), Maine (32) and Michigan (31) also had a dinner cruises, etc.). Also not included are passenger-on- relatively high numbers of reported terminals. ly water taxi services not operating on a ? xed route and

The highest number of reported route segments was LoLo (Lift-on/Lift-off) freight/auto carrier series. Efforts concentrated in the northeast, the west coast, and in Alas- to enumerate ferry operations within the United States ka. The top ? ve states with the largest number of reported for the 2016 NCFO resulted in a frame of 259 active terminals accounted for half of the total reported seg- ferry operations for calendar year 2015.

ments. Those top ? ve states are Alaska, California, New There were 18 (11%) operators that either did not pro-

York, Washington, and Michigan. vide passenger and/or vehicle boarding data or asked that

The 880 total reported route segments served a com- the data they provided not be made public. Due to eligible bined total of 20,042 nautical miles. By far (and not operators who did not respond, as well as those choosing surprisingly) the highest total number of reported state not to provide or make information public for select data route miles was in Alaska, where 12,493 nautical miles items, the numbers in this report are almost certainly un- were served in calendar year 2015, over 62% of U.S. route derestimated. These underestimates included the counts miles. The majority of routes were less than 1 mile (26%). of vessels, terminals, segments, and route miles—and es-

These ferry routes ranged from riverbank crossings to the pecially—total passenger and vehicle boardings in 2015. longest reported route segment, which extends from Ket- Bottom line? The domestic ferry industry is alive and well, chikan, AK, to Bellingham, WA. it is growing and it is helping to clean up the environment,

Not included within the scope of the ferry census were clear out congested roads and get people, cars and freight from operations that were exclusively non-itinerant, such as ex- point A to point B much faster.

See the BTS report by clicking: https://cms.bts.dot.gov/surveys/national-census-ferry-operators-ncfo/2016- highlights-ferry-operations-united-states 13 www.marinelink.com MN