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The two-story, 143,000 square feet building with berthing space for two ships, Smith Cove Cruise Ship Terminal, opened in April. Processing cold storage, facilities, factory trawlers and other operations, it shares space on terminal 91 underneath the Magnolia Bridge.

It was on June 24, 2009 when fishing industry leaders had their first tour of the new facility along with the rest of Terminal 91. Concerns were raised to the Port of Seattle regarding some issues with the terminal.

The manager of dock operations for the port, Greg Englin, says that “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”.

The owner of Ballard Oil, Warren Aakervik asked if the fishing trawlers would be turned away if and when cruise ships were docked. Englin then answered that they didn’t have to but it would need a few more effort on the part of the port staff.

Some rules needed to be disregarded to make sure that all ships will get into the terminal but it wouldn’t be a regular occurrence said the managing director of the port’s seaport division, Charlie Sheldon.

“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.” Sheldon also announced that the fishing industry gives tons of jobs to the people and that 50 percent of those are on the kinds of trawlers who needs to dock at the Terminal. “The fish business is hugely important to us,” he said. “And, we want to make sure it works.”

To read more concerns about the new terminal, please visit cruise ship jobs news.