RedactedNarrative: On Wednesday, November 29th, 2017 at approx. 18:21 hours, Ohio State Wildlife Officer was off duty participating in a local fishing tournament in Lorain, OH. At that time he was underway in his privately owned watercraft which was powered by a 9.9 HP trolling motor.  He was operating said watercraft in the vicinity of the Marina International beach break wall.   While operating his vessel at this time, he noticed a small 12 foot vessel in his path that was not displaying any navigation lights.  
  Operator1 then observed said vessel with less than a foot of freeboard while drifting in waters consisting of approx. 2 foot waves.  Operator1 then approached the vessel and noticed that the two person on board appeared to be wet and that their vessel had water in it.  Operator1 then identified himself as an off duty Ohio State Wildlife Officer and informed the two persons on board, that they were in danger of being hurt or killed by the situation that they were in.  Operator1 shut his trolling motor off and deployed an anchor from his vessel at this time; He then directed the two boaters to physically take hold of his watercraft.  Operator1 advised the two gentlemen that he would assist them to shore (where they informed him that they launched their vessel) for safety reasons.  
  At this time, Operator1 noticed that his anchor had not taken hold as expected and that the two vessel were drifting toward the break wall.  Operator1 attempted to start his main 90HP engine to no avail.  Once it was determined that he could not start his engine, he attempted to start his trolling motor.  During this time, Operator1's vessel had drifted onto the breakwall and became grounded.  He was able to get his vessel away from the break wall and start his trolling motor.  Once Operator1 got underway, he directed the two gentlemen into the Lorain Harbor and was able to follow them with his vessel. 
  At approx. 20:11 hours, the two gentlemen were able to pull their vessel out of the water at the junction of the pier and jetty in Lorain's inner harbor. Operator1 was also able to safely pull his vessel out at the Lorain Municipal Boat Launch (Hot waters).  The Lorain Police Depart. and USCG Station Lorain were both on scene at this time.  Operator1 and members of the USCG Station Lorain crew observed that the vessel occupied by the two gentlemen did not contain any PFDs, navigation lights or federally required distress signaling devices.
  Addendum to Report - 07 December 2017
  Several attempts were made by the Lorain Marine Patrol to contact operator 2 and occupant to no avail.  For this reason, we were not able to gather further information from them nor were we able to follow through with further  enforcement measures at this time. Officer issued cites to operator by certified mail.