VANCOUVER - The man who issued a bomb threat, paralyzing B.C.'s ferry system for a day and prompting a debate about security on the vessels, claimed to be working with a friend.
B.C. Ferries CEO David Hahn said Monday the caller sounded angry and told police he and his friend planned to place a bomb on a vessel at the ferry terminal near Vancouver.
The caller told police he "chickened out'' but his friend was going to continue, Hahn said in a radio interview with CKNW.
Twenty-one sailings were cancelled Saturday and thousands of passengers were stranded at ferry terminals near Vancouver, Victoria and Nanaimo after police received the call.
Police searched cars, vans, trucks, campers and passengers. Nothing was found.
Hahn has promised a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever made the call.
The incident comes just as Transport Canada and ferry operators begin a cross-Canada consultation on ferry security that could result in new regulations by late fall.
B.C. Ferries carried almost 22 million people and 8.5 million vehicles last year and a spokeswoman for the company said balancing security against efficient operation is tricky.
"We want to be able to weigh the risk versus customer convenience,'' Deborah Marshall said Monday.
Marshall said the run between Tsawwassen near Vancouver and Swartz Bay near Victoria alone handled 28,000 passengers on 16 sailings Saturday.
It's the same challenge for the state-run ferry system in neighbouring Washington, which had 24 million passengers and 11 million vehicles last year.
"You want to operate an efficient, effective ferry system and move a lot of people and do it in a hurry and do it on schedule,'' said Scott Davis, safety systems manager for Washington State Ferries.
"At the same time you want to make sure you're doing it safely and securely and putting appropriate measures in place.
"Sometimes, the two run up against each other.''
Davis said the Washington State Patrol conducts random vehicle screenings using explosive-sniffing dogs and ferry staff are trained to spot suspicious behavior from walk-on passengers.
"We follow up on those when we see them but we are not currently doing passenger screening,'' he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard also has started escorting some ferries on their runs with machine gun-equipped Zodiac speedboats to guard against potential seaborne bomb or ramming attacks.
"It's a little bit of enforcement, it's a little bit of a deterrence, it's a little bit of a number of different things,'' said Davis.
Capt. David Miller, president of the Canadian Ferry Operators Association, said while ferries might not be as attractive targets as, say, commuter trains and stations, they are vulnerable, especially if hit far from shore.
Transport Canada and ferry operators begin a cross-Canada consultation on ferry security that could result in new regulations by late fall.
Meetings are to be held in Victoria, Vancouver, Quebec, Toronto and the Maritime provinces.
"The chances of (ferry attack victims) succumbing to their injuries ... is far greater than if you blow that station up because the emergency services are very close by,'' he said.
Miller said he favours airport-style baggage screening for ferry walk-on passengers, something he said is done on the busy Dover-Calais ferry between Britain and France.
Vehicles could be handled using scanning machines and sniffer dogs, he said.
Security analyst John Thompson said the planned security review should go much more quickly.
"We have two responses in Canada, urgent and leisurely, and that's the leisurely route,'' he said.
Thompson, of the Toronto-based Mackenzie Institute, said he was appalled by the apparent lax security aboard a B.C. ferry he travelled on after attending a terrorism conference in Vancouver.
Thompson said he was able to roam at will, even entering the engine compartment, and noticed a door to the bridge was open.
Thompson acknowledged there's a limit to the kind of security high-volume ferries can put in place.
"B.C. car ferries, they're a form of mass transit, and mass transit to work has to be accessible. And you can't do that if you're checking everybody as they board.''
"But what you can do is random spot-checks here and there.''
Miller said he'd also like to see screening measures for B.C. ferries bolstered more quickly.
Marshall acknowledged pressure to increase ferry security will grow as the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics approach.
"That's why we're in the process of enhancing our security,'' she said.
"Certainly with the Olympics coming, security is on top of people's minds.''
B.C. Ferries received several million dollars from Transport Canada last spring to pay for security upgrades.
The money was used to improve physical security features such as fencing, lighting and video cameras, she said.
"We're also working on other things that I wouldn't be at liberty to discuss that customers wouldn't notice,'' she added.
Ottawa is planning two more rounds of funding and B.C. Ferries intends to apply for more money, she said.
"We continuously work with the RCMP to improve our security and we're going to continue to do that,'' said Marshall. "I don't know if that process would ever end really.''
Miller supports the decision to cancel ferry runs on Saturday because the police initially believed the threat was credible.
"We know it's inconvenient but your safety's more important to us,'' said Miller, who operates a busy commuter ferry across the Fraser River near Vancouver.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre said its Integrated National Security Enforcement Team was following up Saturday's threat.
