PORT ANGELES — Eileen Waters took a trip on the MV Coho on Friday to do a little sightseeing in Port Angeles.
The Victoria woman said she has lived across the Strait of Juan de Fuca her entire life, and decided it was time to check out the southern shore.
In about 16 months, that kind of spontaneous trip across the Strait may become less convenient for both Canadians and Americans.
On Thursday, the U.S. government said it will start requiring that everybody entering the country show a passport or a yet-to-be-determined alternative identification when they enter by air or sea beginning Dec. 31, 2006.
A year later, the same requirements will go into effect when crossing the border by land.
The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, approved by Congress in 2004 as part of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, requires that the departments of State and Homeland Security implement changes.
Currently, a birth certificate and a driver’s license will suffice. But come Dec. 31, 2006, Waters will have to have a passport, which costs about $100 Canadian.
“I don’t want to, if only because they are costly,” she said.
“It’s too bad they have to do that.”
Going to be a ‘hassle’
The grudging acceptance of the plan was shared by other MV Coho passengers, who agreed it may be necessary, but it’s equally unsettling.
“It’s going to hassle the law-abiding citizens, that’s basically what it’s going to do,” said Jim Longo, a bicyclist from Florida who completed a leg of a 15-day ride starting in San Francisco on the MV Coho.
But Longo and his traveling companion Barbara Lange, also of Hobe Sound, Fla., came prepared.
“We made sure we took them this time,” she said.
That hassle may be enough to take a bite out of the Port Angeles tourist industry, said Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Russ Veneema.
“Initially it would have an impact, and it would be negative,” Veneema said.
But the world changes, and people have to change with it, Veneema said.
Besides, there are a host of factors that can throw a wet towel on tourism, such as high gas prices, bridge closures and others.
“The list goes on and on,” he said.
