Bar Harbor council doubles down on shrinking 2022 cruise ship season
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
In Bar Harbor, cruise ship visitors are transported by bus to Acadia National Park.
The Bar Harbor Town Council last week told the head of the town’s Cruise Ship Committee that councilors want to see progress soon on potential measures to shrink vessel visits in 2022.
A community survey conducted earlier this year showed that many Bar Harbor residents and business owners favor scaling back the number of cruise ship visits. Some survey participants even called for a permanent ban, although others said the ships are important to the local economy.
In response, the council last month sent a first-draft proposal to reduce the 2022 season, which included reductions in the maximum ship size, season length and the number of monthly port calls, to the Cruise Chip Committee to consider.
The survey showed that residents and business owners "think there’s a serious issue with too much — whether it’s ship size, passengers, whatever," Councilor Jill Goldthwait told Cruise Ship Committee Chairman Eben Salvatore. "To do nothing for 2022 seems to me an abdication of our responsibility."
The committee met Oct. 13 and expressed a willingness to work on solutions, but didn’t take any formal action on the council’s proposal, Salvatore reported. However, he said, the committee forwarded the council’s proposal to Cruise Lines International Association, an industry group. The committee intends to weigh in on the proposal after it gets input from the association.
The council has discussions underway to address the issue for the long term. But the matter has particular urgency for the 2022 season, some councilors noted.
For 2022, Bar Harbor currently has 174 ships with the capacity to carry 292,212 passengers booked for port visits.
That compares with the 2019 season, when 176 ships with the capacity to carry 272,578 passengers were booked. Due to cancellations, port calls in Bar Harbor totaled 158 ships and 249,000 passengers.
“I do not think this community expects a regular season,” said Goldthwait.
Goldthwait proposed that the town conduct a capacity study of its municipal agencies — including emergency services, solid waste transfer, use of the town pier, and tourist services — to get a sense of how much more traffic and passenger congestion the town can accommodate. Municipal services were strained during this year’s tourist season, even without cruise ships, she said.
“The introduction of a whole lot more people isn’t going to help,” she said.
Timing
There's also a potential conflict in the timing of the discussion between the two municipal bodies. The Cruise Chip Committee’s next meeting is Nov. 17, but the council’s next meeting is Nov. 16. That would mean the Cruise Ship Committee’s input won’t reach the council until the latter’s December meeting.
The council asked Salvatore to see if he can reschedule the committee’s meeting, to include input from the association, to be held before Nov. 16.
“If the Cruise Ship Committee can’t accommodate the council meeting, they’d essentially be abdicating their ability to make recommendation in a timely manner,” said Councilor Gary Friedmann. “I would like to incorporate CLIA’s [Cruise Lines International Association] response into the plan for next year. But I can’t see us having the 2022 schedule as currently booked.”
In August, the council received a warning from the association, citing “obvious legal and constitutional issues that attend any effort by local governments to restrict the size, capacity or port access of vessels authorized by U.S. and international law to operate in the maritime commerce of the United States,” although also welcoming “constructive dialogue and collaboration with the town toward ‘a mutually agreeable solution.’”
“We’re trying to work this out the right way and not end up in lawsuits,” said Council Chair Jeff Dobbs.
Bar Harbor is Maine’s largest cruise ship port.
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