BAR HARBOR – Officials at the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co. were working on plans Thursday to move the Acadia Clipper off the shore at Bar Island.

And the process could be a tricky one.

The 100-foot vessel broke free of its mooring at around 11 a.m. Wednesday and drifted an estimated three-quarters of a mile before it was driven onto the western shore of Bar Island.

The high winds, with gusts estimated at 55 mph, and 15-foot swells drove the vessel onto the shore well above the high-water mark.

“It’s up there pretty high,” said Lt. Cecil McNutt, supervisor of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Marine Safety Office in Bucksport. “She won’t be able to come off there on her own power.”

Marc Brent, president of the Bar Harbor Whale Watch Co., which owns the vessel, said Thursday that they are searching for a company with the capability to lift the vessel.

“We’ll make arrangements to move her out of there and get her into a shipyard and fix her up,” Brent said.

No one was on board when the vessel broke loose, and no one was injured in the effort to retrieve the vessel Wednesday. Brent said he called off efforts by his crews to retrieve the vessel for fear someone would be injured in the process.

“It was too dangerous,” he said.

The vessel has been damaged, according to Brent.

“The rudder, shaft and propeller are all gone, bent and mangled,” he said.

They’ve noticed some dents in the hull, but they don’t appear to be serious. They won’t know the full extent of the damage until they move the vessel, Brent said.

The Acadia Clipper was built in 1982 and carries 280 passengers. It was used primarily to ferry passengers from cruise ships to the shore. It is valued at about $700,000 and was insured.

The vessel carried about 1,000 gallons of fuel, and crews from the U.S. Coast Guard Group in Southwest Harbor and its Marine Safety Office monitored the vessel throughout the day in order to respond to any fuel spill from the vessel. An oil-spill containment boom was set up around the Acadia Clipper, according to a Coast Guard press release, but no fuel leaked from the vessel.

By Thursday afternoon, most of the fuel had been pumped from the vessel’s tanks into storage tanks, Brent said. It was scheduled to be removed by barge later in the day.

Bar Island is a part of Acadia National Park, and officials there are concerned about the potential for damage to the environment.

Although the initial concern was for a fuel spill, Park Ranger Richard Rechholtz said, the park’s concern now was the salvage operation might cause damage to the ecosystem around the site.

“There’s no damage that I can see to the ecosystem or the shoreline,” Rechholtz said Thursday. “But we’re very concerned and will work with Marc Brent and the salvage company to make sure the removal doesn’t damage any resources along the shore.”

The water is very shallow around the area, Rechholtz said, and it could be difficult to bring a barge in close enough to retrieve the vessel without damaging the sea bottom. Bringing a large crane across the bar and down the shore also could cause damage to the shoreline, he said.