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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 6
February 2010
Fetterman ends 32-year career at Maine DMR
HALLOWELL, ME – After climbing up the ranks from coastal warden to deputy chief, Maj. John Fetterman, a 32-year veteran of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Bureau of Marine Patrol, retired from his state position effective Dec. 31.
Four days later, he assumed the duties of his new post – director of law enforcement for the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA), a nonprofit organization that develops public policy for recreational boating safety in all 50 states and US territories.
“I’m so excited to be working on a national scale,” said Fetterman, who first began serving NASBLA in 2003 as a member-at-large and worked his way up through the board of directors to become the association’s 2007-2008 president.
Clearly enthusiastic about his new enforcement job, Fetterman nonetheless admitted that making the final decision to retire from the DMR was hard.
“I was still at the point where I loved putting on my uniform and going to work every day,” he said. “But I had been there 32, going on 33 years. And I always said I wanted to leave still loving my job.”
The opportunity to work for NASBLA lessened the blow. The association recently expanded its work in maritime security preparedness and response – both areas of Fetterman’s expertise – and took the significant step of creating a new “director of law enforcement” staff position, which Fetterman was picked to fill.
“The purpose of this new position is to integrate and coordinate law enforcement programs within NASBLA and improve our law enforcement value to our members,” said John Johnson, the association’s executive director.
He added that Fetterman was the right person for the job in part because his management experience and relationships with key national policymakers “position him to make a huge contribution to our mission.”
Starting Downeast
Fetterman began his enforcement career at DMR in 1977 as a coastal warden Downeast in Washington County.
And he couldn’t have been happier. The area was totally dependent on ocean-related commerce, and he became fully immersed in his work.
“I always looked at it as an exceptional opportunity to work in an environment that was saturated with marine resources,” he said.
Then, around 1980, he was transferred to the Thomaston/St. George area, the backyard of Maine Lobstermen’s Association President David Cousens.
Cousens remembers Fetterman best from that era.
“He was a good warden and a go-getter,” said Cousens. “If you called him, he worked the case.”
During that time, the DMR’s airplane pilot resigned, and Fetterman turned out to be the only person within the Bureau of Marine Patrol to have a pilot’s license. So, he began flying the department’s plane – a Cessna 185 four-seat amphibious aircraft that could land on water.
In 1982, he became the bureau’s permanent, full-time pilot and relocated to the DMR’s Hallowell office.
Multiple responsibilities
Fetterman’s pilot years were busy ones. He flew the plane often, the whole length of the coast, providing needed assistance to in-the-field officers who carried out surveillance missions on foot or from the shoreline in small boats. He flew over the state’s 150 or so closed areas, primarily shellfish closed areas, and, most important of all, he flew search and rescue missions.
Fetterman also had a host of ancillary duties. He was the procurement and inventory officer, ensuring that marine patrol officers had necessary uniforms and equipment. He supervised the department’s Marine Patrol Watercraft Repair Facility in Rockland, a building he helped the DMR acquire from the Maine Department of Transportation.
“When he wasn’t flying, he had a lot of other responsibilities. I don’t know what we would have done without him,” said Col. Joe Fessenden, chief of marine patrol, who first met Fetterman when he, Fetterman, was a boatyard mechanic before he joined the DMR.
Fessenden became bureau chief in 1993, and Fetterman’s unfailing professionalism and high standards left a mark on the chief.
In 1994, Fessenden nominated Fetterman to become the first recipient of the Northeast Conservation Law Enforcement Chiefs Association “Officer of the Year Award,” which Fetterman received.
And then, when Fessenden needed a new deputy in 2001, he asked Fetterman to step in.
“He had demonstrated to me that he had the ability to do the job,” said Fessenden.
Fetterman accepted and, in 2001, handed off the piloting duties and assumed his new post.
A changed environment
Fetterman’s life changed dramatically that year, as did everyone’s.
“That was the year 9/11 happened, and we were thrown into the maritime safety arena,” recalled Fessenden. “We really weren’t prepared for it. It was a time when we all had to pull together, and we had to update our fleet of vessels.”
Fetterman oversaw many of the DMR’s new maritime safety responsibilities and was the point-man who worked with the Coast Guard and others on new requirements.
He became Maine’s coastal boating law administrator, working closely with Col. Joel Wilkinson, his counterpart within Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Maine is the only state in the nation to have two boating law administrators – one for coastal and one for inland.
While Fetterman had numerous other responsibilities within the Bureau of Marine Patrol, which included budgetary duties and working with the Interstate Shellfish Sanitation Commission, his maritime safety responsibilities brought him in a new direction.
Fessenden said, “He has a national reputation now, and he’s held in very high regard by the Coast Guard both in Maine and in Washington.”
Hard to replace
Now that Fetterman has retired from the Maine Bureau of Marine Patrol, his duties temporarily have been divided among several officers. And, due to budget problems within the state, the deputy chief post will remain open until at least July to save money.
Fessenden said he plans to do his best to fill the position, although it won’t be easy.
“John’s going to be a tough guy to replace, especially because of his specialties with boating safety,” said Fessenden.
Looking back over his three decades at the DMR, Fetterman said one of the things he enjoyed most was working for Fessenden.
“I feel honored to have worked for someone like Joe, who is so passionate about the industry,” said Fetterman. “I learned from him that the people we serve look to us to keep the playing field level and take the cheaters out of the game.”
A few dark days
While Fetterman said he found much of his work over the years to be rewarding, there were exceptions, and one duty in particular was especially difficult.
Fetterman was one of a very small band of exceptional people who were willing to dive to recover victims lost at sea.
It was daunting work and terrifying at times, even for those with the steeliest of nerves. With murky water, poor visibility, and rough seas usually the norm, divers often only found victims by bumping up against them, mask to face, or by feeling a hand or a leg in the dark – the chilling confirmation that the mission was accomplished.
“The only thing that made us all get back in the water was that we knew how important it was to the families,” said Fetterman. “We knew we were looking for someone’s son or husband or grandkid, and finding them would bring these people peace.”
Lobsterman David Cousens said this was the part of Fetterman’s character that he respected and appreciated most.
“That’s a hard job,” said Cousens. “Not everyone can do it.”
Search and rescue
On the other hand, a few search and rescue missions have given Fetterman some of his finest memories. One in particular stands out above all.
It was Christmas Eve back in the 1980s, and two urchin divers were reported overdue. They had been fishing in the Bailey’s Island/Sebasco area of the coast in an open 18'-20' boat. The urchin divers were wearing dry suits, but it was cold.
Fetterman and the Coast Guard agreed to conduct a joint search mission, each flying separate assigned grids to cover more ground.
“We flew almost all day. The sun started to go down and it began to snow,” Fetterman recalled. “We decided to go out on one final grid assignment, and it was 20 miles offshore. I thought, ‘There’s no way they’re out here.’ But we went out on this last leg on the last flight of the day, and the Coast Guard and I kept coming in closer and closer to each other.
“And then, when we were two miles apart from each other, we both spotted these two guys in the boat. They were 20 miles offshore,” he said.
What a moment it was – to find two stranded fishermen at sea in a small boat on Christmas Eve.
“I felt pretty good that night,” said Fetterman. “I thought, ‘That’s why I do this.’”
Legislative sentiment
Now, 32 years after he first put on a uniform to serve in the Maine Marine Patrol, Fetterman will use his considerable skills to advance maritime safety and good recreational boating practices around the country. He’ll work partly from his home in Maine, but he’ll fly as needed to Lexington, KY, headquarters of the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators, and to Washington, DC.
In February 2009, the Maine Legislature recognized Fetterman’s 2007-2008 year as NASBLA president by issuing “an official expression of legislative sentiment” on behalf of the Legislature and the people of the state.
The sentiment commended Fetterman for his “exemplary and valuable service” to NASBLA and Maine and, among many other things, for cultivating “strong personal and professional relationships with key US Coast Guard officials, which have borne significant results for the association, elevating its credibility and national partnership status with the Coast Guard.”
Maine Sen. Dennis Damon, who initiated the action, said he saw Fetterman as a “shining example of the many men and women in the Maine Marine Patrol who come to their job, day after day, year after year, with caring, dedicated professionalism and a commitment to protecting and serving the people and resources of our coast.”
Damon also recognized that during these difficult economic times with continuing budget cuts, marine patrol officers have been asked to do more and more work with less funding.
“And they have,” said Damon. “They are consummate professionals. They make me proud to work with them. And Maj. Fetterman has been a leader, an inspiration, and an example to emulate in the Maine Marine Patrol.”
Janice M. Plante
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