Bar Harbor ferry investigated Ship’s international voyages prompt officials to seek passenger lists

BAR HARBOR – In an attempt to track how suspects in this week’s terrorist attacks could have entered the United States from Canada, federal officials requested Wednesday morning lists of passengers on The Cat from Bay Ferries Ltd. officials.

U.S. Customs and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials from regional offices arrived at the Route 3 ferry terminal Wednesday morning to acquire photocopies of manifests from the entire summer 2001 season, according to Marketing Director Risteen Masters.

Manifests are lists of passengers that accompany each trip the ferry makes. They include limited information – only passengers’ names and their vehicles’ license plate numbers, she said. Federal officials did not request additional information from the Bay Ferries Ltd. database, which includes passengers’ home addresses.

“I assume if they have follow-up questions, they’ll call us,” Masters said.

Officers from Customs and INS, the Coast Guard and the Bar Harbor Police Department then searched vehicles that were scheduled to depart for Nova Scotia on the ferry Wednesday morning, said Masters.

Customs officers asked Bay Ferries Ltd. to increase its passenger security, requiring that photo identification be presented before boarding The Cat, and adding questions about date of birth and citizenship to the ferry’s passenger identification form.

The Cat also will be required to present its manifests to customs and immigration officials prior to the ferry’s departures each day so the names may be processed through computer databases, Masters said.

“We will have heightened security until further notice,” Masters said.

Officer Shaun Farrar of the Bar Harbor Police Department verified Wednesday that four officers from customs and three from the Coast Guard asked his assistance in searching vehicles bound for Nova Scotia.

Bar Harbor police will provide assistance with similar searches today and Friday, he said.

The Cat canceled its scheduled Tuesday afternoon trip and made a single trip Wednesday to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, leaving Bar Harbor shortly after noon.

The ferry is expected to return to its normal fall schedule today, with daily trips at 8 a.m., and an additional trip at 4 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.

Wednesday’s search delayed departure of the ferry, and Bay Ferries Ltd. officials had no knowledge of the visit before federal officials arrived in Bar Harbor, Masters said.

A spokesman from the Bangor customs office said Wednesday that he could neither confirm nor deny his office’s involvement in any changes at Bay Ferries and deferred to federal spokespeople.

When Washington, D.C.-based spokesman Ken Miche was contacted Wednesday afternoon, he denied any knowledge of an investigation in Bar Harbor or any new security measures.

Miche would not discuss whether such security measures had been taken nationwide. In fact, no information would likely be made available from U.S. Customs and INS for a day or more, he said.

Local Coast Guard officials in Bucksport, too, directed inquiries to a central office, this one in Boston. Petty Officer Andrea Stevenson said from Boston that she could not release any details about Coast Guard actions in Maine.

“The whole country is on heightened alert,” Stevenson said.

Scotia Prince Cruises, a Portland-based company that also sails to Yarmouth, would not say whether federal officials had requested its manifests Wednesday.

“That ought to come from the FBI. I can say that we would provide them [manifests] if they asked,” said spokesman Dennis Bailey.

Bailey did confirm, however, that customs officials required tightened security Wednesday in Portland.

“They did much more thorough searches of vehicles; there was definitely an increased presence,” he said.

Masters also said Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers have taken similar precautions at the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, terminal. The designated provincial RCMP spokesman could not be reached Wednesday for comment.