On Monday, May 4, 2020, US Harbors opened online voting for the “Best Harbor in the U.S. 2020” at https://www.usharbors.com/best-harbor. Over 100,000 people, from all over the country, participated in the 2019 Best Harbor contest, with the winning harbor – Padanaram, MA – sweeping the results with their highly engaged local community.
Voting for this year’s Best Harbor contest is open to everyone from May 4th through May 31st. Participation is limited to one vote per user. US Harbors will announce the winner of the 2020 event on Thursday, June 4th. The winning harbor, and the top 3 runners-up, receive special plaques commemorating their win. Additionally, US Harbors throws a special event for the overall winner, with gifts for their community, and media coverage.
About the “Best Harbor” Contest: The online contest, started in 2019, uses crowd-sourcing to determine which harbor is best loved by its community. Participation is open to everyone, but primarily includes the 5 million people who use usharbors.com for their tides/weather/harbor-local information and daily coastal news. The purpose of the contest is to promote the strength and vitality of coastal communities – the winning harbors have been those whose residents have strong communication networks and support for their community. These kinds of networks are vital for effective disaster management, coastal planning, and the overall resilience of a community, its residents, and their economy.
US Harbors is a media and data company in Rockland, Maine specializing in “tides, weather, & local knowledge™” for people who enjoy our coasts. The company covers 1,400 harbors across 30 states; from the Arctic Circle to the Florida Keys, from Maine to Hawaii, and in the Great Lakes. The company’s primary website, https://usharbors.com, has been helping people make good decisions about their time on and near the water since 2009. Over 5M people use the site annually, with interests in boating, fishing, paddling, swimming, and other activities on or near the water. As well as providing tide and weather data, the site has a continuously updated news feed, covering a wide variety of marine and coastal topics. US Harbors runs the annual “Best Harbor in the US” contest – a crowd-sourced online event to determine the best harbors in the country, as well as national Harbormaster Appreciation Day (https://www.harbormasterday.com) – celebrated annually on October 8th to recognize the stewards of our harbors and ports. The mission of the company is to promote the sustainability and resilience of coastal communities, both economically and environmentally.
