The Director of the Bureau of Parks and Recreation may make rules for the uniform marking of the water areas of this State not otherwise regulated, through the placement of aids to navigation and regulatory markers. No city, county or person shall mark the waters of this State in any manner conflicting with the marking system prescribed by the Director of the Bureau of Parks and Recreation.

The Maine Waterway Marking System is the basic system of uniform markers used on State waters as recommended by the Council of State Governments and the Advisory Panel, U.S. Merchant Marine Council, U.S. Coast Guard, for the purposes of minimizing hazards to navigation.

Maine cooperates in this nationwide uniform marking system to insure that these buoys and markers will have the same meaning in all states. The system is compatible with existing Coast Guard Regulations.

The Maine Uniform State Waterway Marking System (M.U.S.W.M.S.) has been developed to guide the watercraft operators on waters of this State.

State waterway markers shall not normally be placed within the Water Safety Zone (200 feet or less from shoreline), except in channels or to mark hazards to navigation in critical high traffic areas. Neither shall floating State waterway markers normally be placed in waters of less than four (4) feet of unobstructed depth, at average water level.

Whoever violates any of the rules and regulations or any notices posted by the Bureau of Parks and Recreation at public boat launch facilities, or who willfully mutilates, defaces or destroys any notice, monument or marker lawfully erected within or adjoining the borders of these public facilities shall be guilty of a Class E crime.

Whoever marks waters contrary to the rules established by the Director of the Bureau of Parks and Recreation shall be guilty of a Class E crime.

Whoever moors a watercraft to any buoy, beacon or permanent structure placed by the State in any waters of this State, or in any manner makes fast thereto, shall be guilty of a Class E crime.

Whoever willfully destroys, defaces, damages, moves off station or sinks any buoy, beacon or marking device either floating on the waters of the State or permanently fixed to the land or structures adjacent to the water areas of the State, placed by the State, shall be guilty of a Class E crime.