Cranberry boats

The Cranberry Isles are gradually losing year-round population. Two dozen specialists in rural life in Maine met recently with the islanders to see what should be done.

Over steaming bowls of seafood chowder, they got an earful – first from students at the Islesford (Little Cranberry) Elementary School, who have been studying the matter and have written essays calling for more low-cost housing, some sort of medical care and especially expanded ferry service.

Eleven-year-old Emily Thomas told the gathering of 100 islanders and visitors: “On both islands during the winter, transportation is very limited. There are only three boats per day. Due to the schedule, you would have to live a very limited lifestyle. By having an earlier, 6:30 a.m., and a later, 6 p.m., boat, island workmen could get in a fuller day, people who work off-island could work longer, and students at the Mount Desert Island High School could do sports after the school day ended.”

All winter, a privately owned ferry service, Beal & Bunker, operates an early boat leaving Northeast Harbor at 7:30 a.m. The return trip leaves Islesford at 8:30 a.m. and Great Cranberry at 8:45 a.m. The last boat of the day from Northeast Harbor at 3:30 p.m., and the last boat from the islands leaves at 3:45 and 4 p.m. That means a short day on the mainland for high school students living at home on the island. And it means a short workday for islanders employed on the mainland and for mainlanders working on the islands.

A shortage of low-cost housing is being tackled by the Cranberry Isles Realty Trust. Medical service probably will continue to mean a half-hour special boat trip to the mainland. But expanded ferry service should be within reach.

Four other islands – Swans, North Haven, Vinalhaven and Islesboro – have state operated daily ferry service. It would take new legislation to get state service for the Cranberries or a subsidy to enable Beal & Bunker to expand its service.

Surely all those specialists who enjoyed the chowder and heard about the problem can chart a new course so that the Cranberry Isles can hold its present population and become more attractive to newcomers.