Bar Harbor gets a look at life without cruise ships, opening new conversations
File photo / Laurie Schreiber
Bar Harbor residents are pondering the pros and cons of life without cruise ships. Here, tour boats and a large cruise ship herald a typically busy summer day in 2019.
The Bar Harbor Town Council has said it's received dozens of communications in recent weeks about the benefits of cruise ship visits and their impact on the community and local economy.
The communications come after residents got a look, due to pandemic restrictions, at what Bar Harbor might be like without cruise ships. The feedback also comes at a time when town officials are reviewing the potential, and the unknowns, for a 2021 cruise ship season.
Some residents are calling for a permanent ban going forward. Many want the number of cruise ship visits scaled back, while others said the ships are important to the economy.
Public comments have occurred on several platforms, including letters to the editor in the local newspaper, social media and directly to the council.
How many is too many?
Just before the pandemic, the council was discussing the potential for limiting the overall number of cruise ships in town, due to a continuing upward trend that had resulted in increasing downtown congestion.
In 2019, 177 ships with a total capacity of 275,198 passengers reserved visits to Bar Harbor. Another 18 ships, with capacity for nearly 24,000 passengers, canceled visits, citing poor weather.
In 1999, the numbers were 39 ships and 25,485 passengers.
Before the pandemic, the 2020 season had 197 ships booked with a total capacity of 296,046 passengers, in a season that stretched from late April to early November. None of the visits arrived due to restrictions.
Bar Harbor is typically Maine’s busiest cruise ship port.
While increasing congestion has been cited as a problem, taxable sales have also shown steady growth. From 2004, with 85 ships, to 2019, with 175 ships, the September and October taxable sales for Bar Harbor grew 73.5%, according to Cruise Ship Committee documents.
Reduce disembarkations
At its Dec. 15, the council considered a motion to direct the committee to “significantly reduce” the number of cruise ship passengers disembarking in Bar Harbor in 2021 and 2022.
Councilor Joe Minutolo said the council has received “a really intense round of letters and communications with people and it seems like there’s a lot of sentiment on either side of this equation.”
Minutolo proposed a plan to get input through a survey of the community — including year-round and summer residents, business owners, and others — followed by public meetings and policy-making forums.
“I think we need to listen to our residents,” he said. “This is a big issue and it affects so many people.”
Councilor Gary Friedmann, the maker of the motion, said he’s been approached by residents who want to eliminate cruise ships in Bar Harbor entirely.
“That’s a discussion that’s happening all over town,” he continued.
Friedmann said that canceling all the visits would be a blow to businesses already struggling.
In the end, the council voted to develop a mailed survey to residents and hold a public hearing, with the idea of placing a proposed limit on the number of cruise ships and on the number of disembarking passengers on the June 2021 town meeting warrant, for the 2022 season.
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