February 11, 2025
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Falmouth to help enforce maritime laws

PORTLAND – The town of Falmouth is getting ready to help the Coast Guard enforce federal maritime laws and protect the security of Casco Bay and the port of Portland.

Under an agreement to be signed Wednesday, the Falmouth Police Department’s marine unit will be given federal authority to take enforcement action on behalf of the Coast Guard. The town’s 22-foot rigid inflatable rescue boat, for example, could detain boaters who violate the security zone around fuel tankers headed to Portland.

The arrangement is the first of its kind involving a municipality in northern New England. It’s an outgrowth of a 2004 agreement in which the Maine Marine Patrol became the first state law enforcement agency to have authority to enforce federal maritime laws.

That agreement has since served as a model for 15 similar agreements around the country, said Maj. John Fetterman, one of the Marine Patrol’s top officers and chairman of the homeland security commission of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators.

Falmouth’s rescue boat, a gift from the Coast Guard in 2006, will be on call to protect tankers, escort high-visibility passenger ships, and mark and monitor areas that are off-limits, including navigation hazards.

“We’re on speed dial with the Coast Guard,” said Kevin Cady, Falmouth’s harbor master and supervisor of the marine unit. “It’s typical for them to call us, because we’re often closer to an incident, to go out and get eyes on it.”

Cmdr. Mike Ryan, deputy commander of Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, said the agreement with Falmouth could serve as a model for other local partnerships.

“I don’t think it’s in the best interests of the port or the region’s citizens for us to try to do this by ourselves,” Ryan said. “They are waterways experts in this region. They know the users and it helps give us a different perspective because they are so well-versed in this region.”


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