Hawaii Superferry will search for options to lease out the Alakai after a state Supreme Court ruling on Monday found that the law which allowed the catamaran to operate during an environmental review was unconstitutional, Superferry president and chief executive officer Thomas Fargo said this morning.

Fargo called the court's ruling "a terrible decision" but said it was the law. He said Superferry will look for commercial and military charter options for the Alakai and a second catamaran but left open the possibility of resuming ferry operations in Hawaii in the future.

The Alakai left Honolulu Harbor early this morning for its final round trip to Maui to collect passengers and vehicles. Many of the Superferry employees, who are being laid off tomorrow, went on the voyage.

"The problem before us today is there appears to be no short-term solution to this ruling," Fargo said at a news conference at the harbor's Pier 19.

"To conduct another EIS (environmental impact statement), even with the work done to date, and move it through the legal review that it would have to go through might take a year or so. And other options don't provide the certainty that's necessary to sustain a business.

"As a result, we're going to have to go out and find other employment for Alakai, for now. Obviously, this is not even close to our preferred and desired outcome. We have believed from the very start, and continue to believe, that there's a clear and unmet need for an interisland high-speed ferry system for this state.

"My hope, our hope, is that the conditions will eventually be such that we can realize that vision here in Hawaii."

Fargo would not address whether Superferry would repay the state for $40 million in harbor improvements other than to say that the payments were based on fees generated by ferry service. He would also not discuss the extent of the company's financial losses or the possibility that Superferry might file a lawsuit against the state.

Fargo said Superferry proved, after a year of operation, that it took adequate steps to protect the environment.

Fargo, after mentioning that the military might want to lease the Alakai, addressed speculation by some activists who have opposed the project that Superferry was designed from the start as a military operation.

"That's absolutely not true," said Fargo, a former Navy admiral. "We certainly wouldn't have gone to the trouble to paint Alakai in the manner that we did, to appoint her with 836 first-class seats, to spend the huge sums of money that we did to establish service here in Hawaii if that was our goal.

"The goal that's unmistakable was to provide regular and reliable commercial ferry service in these Islands."

Early Superferry executives — and main investor John F. Lehman, a former Navy secretary — had touted the ferry's military utility in discussions with the state, including the possibility that it could be used to transport the Army's Stryker brigade between Oahu and the Big Island. The second vessel, which had been planned for Superferry's expansion to the Big Island, includes a vehicle ramp that could make it more useful to the military.

Gov. Linda Lingle and state House and Senate leaders have said they would ask the state Supreme Court to reconsider aspects of its ruling. The court found that the Superferry was special legislation written for a single company.

The governor and lawmakers are concerned, among other things, that the ruling will unduly restrict the Legislature's power.

A contractor hired by the state was almost finished with the environmental review ordered under the law the court struck down. Fargo said it was up to the state whether to complete the environmental impact statement under the stricter guidelines of the state's underlying environmental review law.

"I'd like to see all of the pieces put in place so that you could operate an interisland ferry system here in Hawaii," he said.