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December 23, 2021

Bar Harbor council girds up legally as it prepares to cut cruise ship visits

3 boats File photo / Laurie Schreiber Bar Harbor is popular for cruise ships and tourboats. A new proposal seeks to reduce cruise ship activity in 2022.
By Laurie Schreiber

The Bar Harbor Town Council this week adopted a draft proposal that would eliminate visits during 2022 from cruise ships with a capacity of 3,000 passengers or more.

The council also decided to seek the advice of a maritime attorney on whether the proposal is legal.

The proposal, from Councilor Jill Goldthwait, was based on the current schedule of 180 ships for the upcoming season. Goldthwait said that subtracting boats carrying 3,000 or more passengers would reduce the number to 110.

September and October see the highest number of large ships, she noted. 

“That gives us a significant reduction for the 2022 season,” she said.

The council has said that the goal for 2022 is to reduce the number of disembarking passengers by 30%. The goal is based on a community survey conducted earlier this year, which identified downtown congestion as a top drawback during port calls.

Previous discussions regarding restrictions on the size, capacity or port access of vessels resulted in a warning from an industry group, Cruise Lines International Association. The group said there would legal and constitutional questions over any cutbacks.

Councilors agreed to adopt this week’s proposal as something for an attorney to weigh in on.

“Without having spoken with an attorney, I don’t know if it’s legal for us to do this,” said Council Vice Chair Matthew Hochman, who added that he supported the proposal. 

“I want to make sure we work with the industry on how we fix September and October,” Hochman continued. “It really is relentless.”

The goal is to meet with an attorney by the end of January. 

But in a Dec. 15 memo to the council, Eben Salvatore, chair of the town’s Cruise Ship Committee, said that for the 2022 season, a 30% reduction of disembarking passengers could happen naturally.

Factors that occur naturally include port of call cancellations, which happen at an annual rate averaging 10% to 20% for number of ships and 8% to 10% for total passengers, he wrote. The majority of cancellations are weather-related, he added.

Also, he said, separate studies have shown that the disembarking rate is 85% in Bar Harbor and only about 50% of ships are fully booked.

“With 10% of ships canceling, 15% of the passenger staying onboard, and even a portion of the ships not being full, it is reasonable to forecast only 70%, if not less, of what is currently booked actually coming ashore in Bar Harbor,” Salvatore said.

2023 season

The council also voted to notify the cruise ship industry that the town will impose a reduction in cruise ship activity for the 2023 season. How that reduction will be accomplished is still to be determined, they agreed.

“But we’re saying that we are going to make reductions,” said Goldthwait. “I certainly hope the industry is willing to work with us to figure out how that’s going to happen. I’m talking about a reduction from 40% to 50% of the business we have now. 

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