Passengers on ferry between Galveston and Bolivar to be screened

Houston Chronicle:

Pop open that cooler, sir.

Starting Tuesday, vehicles and passengers will be subject to screening before boarding the Galveston-Port Bolivar ferries.

The random screenings are part of the U.S. Coast Guard Homeland Security program and will be conducted by SeaWolf Marine Patrol, a security firm, under direction of the Texas Department of Transportation.

Motorists who refuse will not be allowed to board, TxDOT said.

Local TxDOT spokeswoman Janelle Gbur said screeners do not reveal what they will be looking for, and she did not know what items are banned.

...

I think ferries are one of the hidden treasures of sight seeing in the US. The Bolivar ferry is actually a free ride. I have been on ferries in the Calendar Islands off the coast of Maine that go all the way up to Canada as well as the ferries off of Seattle that look at the other end of Canada. Both are spectacular rides, but perhaps the one I have enjoyed the most is in San Francisco Bay that goes over to Sausalito as it passes the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island. It should be noted that the searches make some sense since the Millennium Bomber was caught coming off the Ferry near Seattle. BTW, the SeaWolf is an old World War II submarine that is part of a park near Galveston.

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