Bay Ferries is considering cutting some of its runs between Digby and Saint John, N.B., as a way to save money on high fuel costs.

Mark MacDonald, president of Bay Ferries, said the rising cost of fuel means the ferry Princess of Acadia is under scrutiny.

"With the price of fuel risen to where it has in recent months, this service is facing a real challenge, and we're grappling with that and exploring all the options we have right now," he said at a Maritime transportation conference Thursday in Truro.

The ferry connects Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, running year round except for a few days in the Christmas season and a few weeks in February when it's in dry dock.

MacDonald said the company is already trying to save money on fuel by running only two of the ferry's four engines, but further savings may be necessary.

The short-term solution would be to keep the Princess of Acadia at the wharf during slow times of the year, such as January through March and November, MacDonald said.

"We always have to look at whether it makes sense to be doing what we're doing," he said.

Fishing and forestry operators in southern Nova Scotia rely on the ferry to ship goods for export to the United States.

Vaughn Sturgeon, chair of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, said the cost of alternative land transportation could be exorbitant.

"It wouldn't surprise me if you doubled it in some cases, just clean doubled the cost of transportation," he said.

MacDonald said Bay Ferries' long-term challenge with the Digby-Saint John route is to finance a replacement ferry.

The 35-year-old Princess of Acadia can still provide years of service, he said, but import duties make it uneconomical to buy a foreign-built replacement.