The Steamship Authority will no longer be running advertisements, eliminating what is typically a $100,000 annual revenue stream for the ferry line.
The Steamship board voted 3-1 to stop accepting new ads until an updated advertisement policy could be created. The ferry line will continue to honor contracts already in place.
The issue came to a head earlier this year when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, also called PETA, placed ads that encouraged riders to avoid eating lobster and to practice veganism. The posters were created to raise awareness over the plight of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale by taking aim at the lobster industry. The ads incensed a number of local Islanders, especially local lobster fishermen.
PETA has pushed back against the new policy change, claiming that it would “stifle free speech.”
“It’s un-American to try to sink the message that entanglement in discarded lobster and fishing gear is driving right whales to extinction,” Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, said in a statement. “PETA urges the Steamship Authority to stand up for values and facts by resisting pressure from monied interests who put profits over lives.”
The Steamship board has considered allowing only advertisements from government entities.
Steamship Authority communications director Sean Driscoll said during the Tuesday meeting that the PETA ad dispute was the first time in 17 years of running advertisements that there has been an issue.
Driscoll said the board’s options would be to either keep the advertisement policy as it was currently written — which states that ads should clearly display that the viewpoints are not those being endorsed by the Steamship Authority or the state — or to shut down the program entirely and only allow messaging from the ferry line.
Driscoll said altering the present policy could lead to legal troubles.
Tuesday’s board discussion centered around possible lawsuits from First Amendment rights advocates, and whether the board should even be looking at moderating advertisements at all. The board ultimately decided to halt advertising rather than kicking the issue down the road.
In the 3 – 1 vote, Nantucket representative, Robert Ranney, voted against the motion. New Bedford representative Moira Tierney was absent from the board meeting.
