A Canadian ferry company that offers seasonal service between Bar Harbor and Nova Scotia is looking into possible expansion to Portland now that another ferry operator has pulled out of the southern Maine city, according to a company official.

Mark MacDonald, president and chief executive officer of Bay Ferries, said on Saturday that his company has had an interest “for a number of years” in offering ferry service between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and Portland. He said in a recorded message left with the Bangor Daily News that it might not be possible to expand to Portland this summer.

“The difficulty with the situation at the moment, of course, is that the news of the Scotia Prince cancellation has come at such a late stage,” MacDonald said. “What we are doing as a company right now is stepping back and looking at the situation as it now exists and determining what, if anything, we can do in the short to medium term.”

Efforts this past week to get in touch directly with MacDonald, who works at Bay Ferries’ offices in Nova Scotia, have been unsuccessful.

In addition to operating The Cat ferry between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, from May and October each year, Bay Ferries operates ferries between Saint John, New Brunswick, and Digby, Nova Scotia, as well as to Prince Edward Island, according to the company’s Web site.

Scotia Prince Cruises and the city of Portland angrily cut ties with each other last week, when the ferry company canceled its 2005 schedule and accused the city of failing to fix a mold problem at the city-owned International Marine Terminal. City officials, in response, said Portland has spent $1.2 million to fix the problem and suggested that the company may have other undisclosed reasons for canceling its service.

Scotia Prince Cruises had an exclusive arrangement with Portland, which prevented the city from contracting with another ferry company, according to MacDonald.

The Bay Ferries executive indicated in the recording that his company likely will take several days to a week to gather enough information to determine whether it might be able to establish ferry service this summer between Portland and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

“We are still very interested in Portland,” MacDonald said. “We’re very sorry to hear this news [of the Scotia Prince cancellation] because it affects a lot of people in Nova Scotia and Maine, but we’re seeing what we can do to assist in that.”