Foot traffic to Martha’s Vineyard is well up on passenger ferries this summer, early numbers released this week by the Steamship Authority show.

Passenger statistics for the month of June and year to date were reviewed by SSA governors at their monthly meeting in Hyannis Tuesday.

Two out of the three passenger ferry lines licensed by the SSA saw double-digit increases for both the month of June and the first half of 2019.

The Hy-Line fast ferry between Hyannis and Oak Bluffs carried 17,442 passengers in June, 831 more than last year, a five per cent increase. Through June, the Hy-Line carried 23,768 people, an increase of 7.6 per cent over 2018.

Falmouth Ferry Service, which operates the Pied Piper and Sandpiper between Falmouth Harbor and Edgartown’s Memorial Wharf, carried 2,406 passengers in June, a 26 per cent jump of nearly 500 people over the same month last year. With a total of 3,185 riders through June, the company is up 32.1 per cent over 2018.

The high-speed SeaStreak ferry service between New Bedford and Oak Bluffs had 11,069 riders in June and 15,560 all year — increases of 25.6 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively, over 2018.

The SeaStreak run between New York city and the Vineyard lost about 25 passengers compared to last year, with a ridership of 773 in June. But with a total of 1,331 trips this year, the pricey weekend service reported an eight per cent increase over the same period in 2018.

SeaStreak’s New Bedford to Nantucket service shows the steepest jump of all, up 27.2 per cent this June and 39.1 per cent this year.

“It will be interesting to see what their July and August numbers are,” said Vineyard governor Marc Hanover.

“Do you have any idea why they’re up so much — 39 per cent to Nantucket, 29 per cent to the Vineyard?” Mr. Hanover asked general manager Robert Davis.

Mr. Davis said he couldn’t immediately think of any reason, such as a ferry out of service last year, that would explain the increases.

The Island Queen is grandfathered from Steamship Authority licensing, and does not report its numbers to the larger boat line.

Meanwhile, slightly fewer passengers rode SSA ferries to the Vineyard in June than in 2018. The boat line’s latest business summary shows that 269,169 people traveled through Woods Hole, a drop of 2,145 or 0.8 per cent from last year’s June total.

Mr. Davis said the relatively flat performance could be blamed in part on the weather.

“It was a very rainy month, (with) close to three inches more rain than the previous year during that month and about double the number of days it rained,” he said.

In other business Tuesday, the board heard from Mr. Davis about plans to provide passenger shelters near the southern slip in Woods Hole this fall, when contractors resume work on the long-term terminal reconstruction.

With the middle slip next on the project list, the tent currently in use there as a passenger shelter will be dismantled and stored, Mr. Davis said, and a new glassed-in shelter constructed on the south side of the southern slip.

Mr. Davis said the nearby oil storage shed is being considered as a second shelter, although making it ready for passengers will likely take longer than building the new glass enclosure.

Unlike the tent, “the glass shelter and the shed will offer some protection from the winter winds coming off the water” for passengers waiting to embark, Mr. Davis said. Work on the shelters will commence after Columbus Day, he said.

Elsewhere in the terminal reconstruction project, a single dolphin monopile — one of the upright pilings, 96 inches in diameter, supporting the bumpers that help guide ferries into and out of their slips — for slip 3 is costing the Steamship Authority just shy of $400,000 more than planned.

Designed to be driven 100 feet into the sea bottom, monopile 8 rammed into an unknown obstruction that stopped it short at about 60 feet. To reinforce the dolphin against impacts from ferries, contractor Jay Cashman Inc. drove two additional coated-steel pipe piles, each 42 inches in diameter, behind the 96-inch monopile to a depth of 85 feet.

The extra work and materials added up to $398,182.27, an expenditure the board approved unanimously.

Also Tuesday, the board and public were introduced to the new port captain, Charles Monteiro. A boat line employee since 1976, Mr. Monteiro has served as a seaman, bosun, purser, mate, pilot and vessel captain, and was named assistant port captain in 2009.

In his new position, which he started Monday, Mr. Monteiro is responsible for day-to-day fleet operations, including personnel oversight, and compliance with Coast Guard regulations.

Tuesday’s agenda included the board’s annual performance review for Mr. Davis, who became general manager two summers ago.

But after general counsel Terence Kenneally noted that only four of seven members of the port council had returned the evaluation forms all had been asked to complete, New Bedford governor Maura Tierney asked to postpone the review and send the three other port council members a board letter requesting their participation.

Backing up Ms. Tierney, who took part in the meeting by speaker phone, Falmouth governor Kathryn Wilson said she would prefer to have all the port council members’ responses before conducting Mr. Davis’s review. Agenda items generally pass through the port council before coming to the monthly board of governors’ meeting.

“I found their comments helpful in formulating my own thoughts,” Ms. Wilson said.

Because he had already prepared his remarks, Vineyard port council member George Balco briefly summarized for the board the four participating members’ evaluation.

“He’s working very hard,” Mr. Balco said, assigning Mr. Davis a score of “about 90 out of 100.

“He’s not perfect, but he’s pretty darn good.”

The next regular meeting of the board is Sept. 24 at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.