Off-season ferry service between New Bedford and Martha’s Vineyard will be curtailed even further after Steamship Authority governors voted this week to allow the high-speed passenger ferry SeaStreak to drop April from its schedule.

SeaStreak will suspend service between Dec. 1 and April 30, 2012.

“This is a month longer than this past year,” said Steamship Authority general manager Wayne Lamson at the meeting in Woods Hole on Tuesday.

“They call it suspending the winter season but the end of April is not the winter season,” said New Bedford governor John Tierney.

SeaStreak president James Barker said the company was currently operating at around a $50,000 loss for the month of April.

“I don’t have the actual figures with me but they’re extremely low,” he said.

“The season has definitely gotten shorter,” said Vineyard governor Marc Hanover.

Mr. Barker also said competition from the Rhode Island Fast Ferry was hurting his business.

“We’re not all that friendly with each other,” he said. “We’d like them to go away.”

In other business, governors also voted to enter into a five-year lease with the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission as the boat line relocates its Island reservation office from the airport business park to the airport terminal. The rent will be $1,757 per month for the first year.

Mr. Lamson also reported that the cost to repair a dolphin (a marine structure that helps buffer ferry landings) in Vineyard Haven was $323,000. The work was carried out by AGM Marine Inc. contractors of Mashpee.

“The cost of these is just overwhelming,” commented Falmouth governor Robert Marshall.

For September, passenger traffic was up 3.3 per cent while automobile traffic was up 3.8 per cent on both Island runs. The net operating gain for the month was $2.25 million, $171,000 higher than projected. For the year net operating gains are $10.57 million, $1.27 million higher than projected.

Mr. Lamson attributed the healthy financial picture to lower-than-expected expenses in health claims and maintenance, rather than increased ridership.