Pilots Decry Council’s Action
Nov 21, 2025
BAR HARBOR—At the request of State Representative Gary Friedmann and a lawyer representing Bay Ferries, the Bar Harbor Town Council this week unanimously supported efforts to no longer use pilots to bring The CAT, a high-speed ferry that brings passengers from Bar Harbor, Maine to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia into Frenchman Bay between May and October.
The ferry had its second highest season this year with 39,745 passengers and 16,233 vehicles. In 2024, it had ferried 49,299 passengers and 19,935 vehicles. In 2024, the Nova Scotian government committed to subsidizing The CAT for two more years, with that support coming in at approximately $21 million in 2024. An economic study determined that tourists generated approximately $20 million during the 2023 season in the province.
On Tuesday the council quickly resolved “that it is in the economic interest of the Town of Bar Harbor to support the continued operation of the international ferry service by working with the State of Maine, and all relevant agencies to restore the traditional 54-year pilot exemption.”
That exemption had been repealed when The CAT was not running. That meant that the ferry had to have pilots board it once it operated again.
According to its website, the Penobscot Bay Pilots “are responsible for guiding any vessel required to take a pilot upon the waters of Penobscot and Frenchman Bay as well as Penobscot River.”
Throughout the country, pilots board vessels like The CAT or cruise ships and cargo ships offshore, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year if the weather permits. Their job is to navigate those ships to port. And then, they guide them out again. Typically, they employee local ship captains who employ local sternmen to get them to the The CAT or other vessels.
During their presentation, Rep. Friedmann and Daniel Walker, a Bay Ferries Representative from Preti Flaherty, said the town’s last contract negotiation with Bay Ferries occurred seven years ago. The resolve, Rep. Friedmann said, deals with two issues: U.S. customs costs and the pilots.
Rep. Friedmann said he’s sponsored state legislation that a pilot not have to board the ferry every time it goes into Frenchman Bay.
“The Pilots are disappointed but not surprised to see Representative Friedmann continue his efforts to undermine compulsory pilotage in Maine waters on behalf of Bay Ferries and its Canadian owner,” the Penobscot Bay Pilots said in response via email Thursday morning.
The Pilots are part of the lawsuit against the town’s cruise ship disembarkation limits of 1,000 people a day without fines. That case is ongoing.
“Through this proposed legislation, Rep. Friedmann is seeking to exempt a foreign corporation from complying with a state-mandated system that serves the people of Maine by protecting lives, property, and the marine environment, as it has done for decades,” the Pilots continued. “That a past town council member and now current state representative would come before his former colleagues, literally sitting next to and advocating on behalf of a foreign corporation’s lobbyist, and against the interests of the people within his district and the State of Maine as a whole, is shameful and short-sighted. The unanimous vote of support by the Bar Harbor Town Council to alter a state statue for the sole benefit of a Canadian corporation and its owner, without even so much as a suggestion of seeking input from the Pilots regarding their perspective, is a telling illustration of the state of politics in Bar Harbor. Rep. Friedmann’s efforts, along with the town council’s support, are a chilling example of the manner in which foreign interests seek to influence Maine’s legislative process for their own financial gain.”
It costs approximately $350,000 to the Province of Nova Scotia for the pilot service. The men reasoned that cruise ships do need pilots because they aren’t coming into the harbor every day during the season like Bay Ferries does.
The CAT is 8,127 tons with a 12-foot draft and it might have over 800 people onboard. The pilots execute a 180-degree turn when docking it at the Bay Ferries Terminal at the town-owned site on Route 3. Pilots move it through a roughly 600-foot channel between lobster buoys and gear and back to its port, which is further than where cruise ships dock.
The other issue is that Bay Ferries pays for all the U.S. Customs employees at the terminal, Walker said, so he was also there requesting the council work with them in petitioning the federal government to change that as well.
The annual cost for United States Customs and Border Services (USCBP) coverage for the ferry is a little over $1 million. Those staff members have to be paid full time for a year, Rep. Friedmann said, though they are seasonal positions.
According to the council resolve, “Bar Harbor is the only port in the United States where USCBP has refused to provide any services to an international trade enterprise unless USCBP receives a payment for covering the annual costs of multiple federal government employees despite the fact such employees provide no services at the port for most of the year.”
The resolve allows Town Manager James Smith to work with the DOT to have the ferry continue in Bar Harbor and get rid of the pilotage requirement.
“We want to protect the port of entry for Bar Harbor,” Walker said.
The town has been a port of entry since 1927.
“The town of Bar Harbor is very supportive of the ferry being here,” Town Council Chair Val Peacock said via Zoom. She’d rather the town not support technical opinions but give general support.
“It seems kind of punitive almost. These people have great experience, they know our waters,” Councilor Joe Minutolo said of the requirement to have pilots board The CAT, citing the experience of the ship’s own captains.
It was supported unanimously.
The ferries’ fees do not cover its operating costs, the men said.
The ferry did not run during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. It had existed in Bar Harbor from 1956 through 2009, stopping when Nova Scotia ended subsidies. From 2014 through 2018 it ran from Portland to Nova Scotia instead, returning to Bar Harbor at a fully operational status in 2022.
THE RESOLVE
The Bar Harbor Story is generously sponsored by Rick Osann Art.
All photos: Shaun Farrar/Carrie Jones/ Bar Harbor Story
LINKS TO LEARN MORE
Penobscot Bay River Pilots Association
Its Facebook page
Council Meeting Agenda (this includes the ordinance and resolve)
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