Fewer passengers rode the Steamship Authority ferries last year, continuing a trend under way since the turn of the millennium.
The boat line, which provides the only year-round passenger and vehicle service to the Islands, carried 2,609,835 passengers last year, off 63,324 or 2.4 per cent from 2004.
Passenger traffic on the Vineyard route fell 3.1 percent.
"This is the third year we've been down three per cent," Vineyard SSA governor Marc Hanover said yesterday. "There are more people living here, fewer people visiting."