Cruise ships docking in rural Maine divide residents - Entrepreneur Generations

The view from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park.
(Boston Globe photo by John Tlumacki)

Perched on the rocky northeast shore of Mt. Desert Island and surrounded by Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine, has long been known for its natural beauty. But in recent years more and more cruise ships have begun making shore stops in the local Frenchman's Bay. Some see them as a means of economic stability, pumping tourist money into the local economy. But others think the cruise ships are ruining iconic viewsheds and that day-trip cruise ship tourists would drive away more valuable long-term tourists who spend more money, Jenna Russell reports for The Boston Globe.

A proposed pier that would attract more and bigger ships has become a lightning rod for the issue, sparking fierce debates among locals. The Bar Harbor Town Council had advanced the idea, saying the pier could be built at the abandoned site of a defunct ferry terminal nearby. Charles Sidman organized the Bar Harbor Residents Association last month to fight against the pier. "This is natural beauty as magnificent as it gets — to put a bunch of cruise ships in the middle of that is like putting a McDonald’s in the middle of the Grand Canyon," he told Russell. "These views of Frenchman Bay have been painted and photographed for hundreds of years. Why would you sacrifice a precious resource like that for a few dollars?" Another group opposing the pier, Friends of Frenchman Bay, launched an online petition that has more than 1,000 signatures.

Owners of the waterfront mansions that made Bar Harbor famous have complained that the cruise ships spoil their view of the water. The owners of two of those homes filed suit this July in Maine Superior Court, seeking to undo the recent zoning change that would allow the pier to be built. The grounds for their suit is that the zoning change conflicts with other laws governing land use.

Opponents of the cruise ships also cite frequent overcrowding in Acadia National Park in recent years. Acadia had a record-high 3.3 million estimated visitors last year, causing park rangers to have to close the road to nearby Cadillac Mountain several times this summer because of traffic. Locals are worried that the town just can't absorb many more visitors. But the statewide CruiseMaine marketing initiative has helped cruise ship traffic more than double since 2003.

On the other side of the issue, "Town Council chairman Paul Paradis, who owns a hardware store downtown, said he supports the development of a cruise ship facility because it would allow Bar Harbor to acquire, and pay for, a valuable waterfront site, while also strengthening the local economy, where merchants have to hustle to eke out a year-round living from a five-month business season," Russell reports. "This is not an inexpensive place to live, and it gets harder and harder for our kids to stay here,” he said. “The only way they can stay is with a viable local economy, and I see this as a part of that economy."

Some other local business owners agree with Paradis, saying that their businesses would not have survived without the cruise ships, "especially in September and October, when visits by ships sharply increase and the land-based tourism of summer falls away," Russell reports.

The town council must decide before November whether to purchase the ferry terminal.



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