KENNEBEC JOURNAL • July 8, 2022
The U.S. Coast Guard has halted the operation of the ferry from Richmond across the Kennebec River to Swan Island, and a date has not been set for the service to resume. It’s not clear what triggered this action by the U.S. Coast Guard; the state has provided ferry service between Richmond and the island since the 1960s and the current ferry has been in service for seven years. The move caused the cancellation of field trips to the island at the end of the school year, part of a conservation area managed by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife. It has also halted other scheduled summer activities and programs on the island until the department can comply with the Coast Guard’s requirements. There’s no record of the vessel being inspected as a small passenger vessel, and as a result the captain of the port deemed it as “a significant unsafe boating condition and an environmental threat to the port and navigable waterways.”