Bar Harbor extends cruise ship ban to July 1
FILE PHOTO / LAURIE SCHREIBER
Bar Harbor councilors have extended the current cruise ship ban to July 1.
The Bar Harbor Town Council voted Tuesday to extend its ban on cruise ship visits to July 1.
Town Manager Cornell Knight told the council, which met by video-conference, that all but seven cruise ship reservations through May were already canceled. Further cancellations through May and June are expected, he said.
Twenty-one visits were originally scheduled for May, and 26 in June. Bar Harbor is Maine’s busiest cruise ship port.
Council members said they received many emails from residents, the majority supporting an extension of the ban.
“Most were for banning the whole season,” Councilor Jill Goldthwait said. “I’m not sure this is the right time to do that. But I do think it’s the right time to say not in May and June.”
She added, “Our community is extremely concerned and anxious about this. I don’t think anxiety should be the sole reason for banning cruise ships, but it’s a factor.”
Councilor Gary Friedmann said, “There’s certainly a great deal of concern about cruise ships and also about the coming tourist season."
In addition to cruise ships, the council should look at all sources of visitation, Friedmann suggested.
“We can’t just look at cruise ships and point to them as the vector for spreading COVID-19,” he said. “Even though they’re floating Petri dishes and there’s the potential for large numbers of carriers from those ships, they still comprise only 5% of the number of visitors that arrive annually in Bar Harbor.
"How can we ban cruise ships without looking at the millions of visitors who arrive from around the world, by private vehicles, by buses, by airplanes, by every other mode of transportation?”
Friedmann wants the town to connect with the state, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the Maine Office of Tourism and local businesses to develop a plan that will provide for the safety of residents and visitors as well as a plan to address the downturn in tourism that will “pummel the local economy.”
“A lot of people are on the same page as the folks you’ve heard from,” Alf Anderson, executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, told the council.
Anderson said his board of directors has been meeting to develop a plan for how to open up the town and invite visitors back when the crisis has passed.
On March 13, Canada banned cruise ships carrying more than 500 passengers through July 1. Many of the ships that travel to Bar Harbor include Canada in their itineraries.
On Sunday, the government of Canada announced new measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission on commercial passenger vessels and ferries.
As of Monday, the new measures prohibit commercial marine vessels with a capacity of more than 12 passengers from engaging in nonessential activities, such as tourism or recreation. The measures will remain in place until at least June 30.
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