The Smith Cove Cruise Ship Terminal opened for the tourist season in April. On June 24, fishing industry leaders got the chance to tour the new facility, as well as the rest of Terminal 91, and raise concerns to the Port of Seattle.

The cruise ship terminal is a two-story, 143,000-square-feet building with berthing space for two ships. It shares space on Terminal 91 underneath the Magnolia Bridge with seafood processing facilities, cold storage, factory trawlers and other operations.

The difficulty for the Port of Seattle, which operates Terminal 91, is to integrate all the different operations with the increase in use brought on by the cruise ship terminal, said Greg Englin, manager of dock operations for the port.

Warren Aakervik, owner of Ballard Oil, asked if the terminal had needed to turn away any fishing trawlers when the cruise ships were docked.

Englin said they hadn't, but it had required a bit of hustle on the part of port staff.

Charlie Sheldon, managing director of the port's seaport division, said they had to bend some rules to make sure all the vessels got into the terminal, but that shouldn't be a regular occurrence during the six-month cruise season.

"Out of the whole cruise season, there are maybe 20 days when it gets crazy," he said. "But when it gets crazy, it gets really crazy."

The fishing industry holds a huge number of jobs, and half of those are on the kinds of trawlers that need to dock at Terminal 91, Sheldon said.

"The fish business is hugely important to us," he said. "And, we want to make sure it works."

Ron Hildebrandt is the chief logistics officer at Trident Seafoods, which operates out of Terminal 91. He said the first few weeks of the cruise season were a challenge, especially because of the traffic from cruise passengers.

Traffic on the Galer Street Flyover that leads to Terminal 91 from 15th Avenue West was not handled correctly in the early weeks, he said. Since that time, the Port of Seattle is doing much better, he said.

Hildebrandt said the biggest concern for Trident is the effect of the cruise ship traffic on Terminal 91 once construction starts on the bored tunnel, the viaduct and Mercer Street.

Aakervik and Susie Burke, president of the Fremont Docking Company, expressed concerns over long backups on 15th Avenue West caused by southbound school buses lining up in the left-turn lane for the Galer Street Flyover and the Magnolia Bridge and blocking traffic. This problem will be exacerbated by tour buses waiting to turn for the cruise ships, they said.

Marie Fritz, manager of cruise services for the Port of Seattle, said the Seattle Department of Transportation is looking at retiming the traffic lights to ease congestion.

Another concern of industry representatives is security for Terminal 91. On non-cruise days, there is a checkpoint before vehicles can enter the terminal. On cruise days, that checkpoint is non operational.

Englin said the security for the terminal is actually better on cruise days because there are more security personnel present around the terminal instead of just the one check point.

The Smith Cove Cruise Ship Terminal itself was empty for the tour as no cruise ships were arriving or departing June 24.

Peter McGraw, spokesperson for the Port of Seattle, said the interior of the cruise ship terminal will be improved, such as through the addition of art honoring Native American culture, after the end of the cruise season in October.

The cruise ship terminal is the only place in the world right now with two power hookups for cruise ships, McGraw said.

He said each cruise ship uses as much power in one day as the Columbia Tower. The ships usually have to burn fuel to keep powered while docked, he said.

The power hookups connect the ships to the city's electrical grid, eliminating the need to burn fuel and cutting back on pollution, McGraw said.