PORTLAND — Owners of freight and passenger vessels are upset about a federal proposal to charge annual Coast Guard inspection fees at a cost of thousands of dollars to local operators.

“It’s a major, major blow,” said Coley Mulkern of Lionel Plante Associates, a freight hauler on Peaks Island. “Here, President Bush is telling you small businesses should be protected and yet government is coming in and killing us.”

The proposed inspection fees are in addition to new license fees for vessel captains and other new Coast Guard regulations. Vessel owners have until Feb. 18 to send written comments to the Coast Guard about the proposed user fees.

Coast Guard Cmdr. Bruce Russell of the Office of Marine Safety Security and Environmental Protection in Washington has received more than 200 comments so far from vessel owners. He said he expects to hear from most of the 12,000 vessel owners before the deadline.

The user fees were mandated by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. The law, adopted by Congress last October, is intended to cover the cost of inspections.

Vessel owners say the proposed fees are steep when considering the time it takes to inspect some vessels. For example, Mulkern said he has a small freight ship that will cost $5,411 to have inspected.