Marine Division
The Manistee County Sheriff’s Marine Division patrols over 23 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline with three Lake Michigan access ports. One has a deep water port with a large volume of commercial traffic. The Marine Division also routinely patrols six of our County’s larger inland lakes and over 60 miles of area rivers.
Responsibilities
The Sheriff’s Marine Division is responsible for:
- Enforcing Michigan’s marine laws
- Investigating boating accidents
- Conducting livery inspections, search and rescue operations, and body recovery
- Instructing boater safety classes to area youths
Our Marine Division consists of one full-time officer and one part-time officer, who are responsible for maintaining public safety on all bodies of water throughout Manistee County. The full-time officer handles the Snowmobile Division during the winter months from November 1st through March 31st each year.
Deputy Aaron Rybicki is in charge of over seeing the day-to-day operations of the Sheriff’s Marine and Snowmobile divisions. Deputy Rybicki has been with the Manistee County Sheriff’s Office for two years and worked as the Marine Assistant before being hired full time. Deputy Rybicki took over the Marine and Snowmobile divisions in 2020 after the promotion of Sgt. Sekuris. During most summers, the Sheriff’s Office employs an Assistant Marine Deputy to help with the program.
The Sheriff’s Marine Division Patrol vessels consist of the following:
Not pictured is a Kawasaki 900 Jet Ski.
Manistee County has a variety of vessel traffic each season, including:
- Commercial freighters
- Large numbers of Lake Michigan fishing vessels
- Increasing river traffic, which includes:
- Canoes
- Kayaks
- Power fishing boats
- Rafts
- Tubes
The lakes and rivers are some of the finest in Northern Michigan, making Manistee a "recreational hot spot" for water enthusiasts of all types.
Each spring, Deputy Sekuris will teach the Michigan Boating Basics Course in area schools. We offer this course to every school system in our County at no charge to the students or the schools. A Michigan Boaters Safety Certificate is then issued upon successful completion of the course. Each year, the Marine Division trains between 150 to 200 students in our County. For information on classes and summer classes, call the Marine Division at 231-723-8393, ext. 23.