MORO PLANTATION (AP) – A fisherman who drowned after his canoe overturned on the cold waters on Rockabema Lake was not wearing a life jacket, the state warden service said.

Mark A. Perry, 48, of Brockport, New York, was found Tuesday in about 7 feet of water, 40 feet off the shore. The Maine Warden Service said Perry was an inexperienced swimmer.

“Water, particularly in northern Maine, is still in the 50s. If people fall in without a life jacket, they’re not going to last very long,” said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“The life jacket doesn’t do any good if it’s stowed under the seat,” he said.

Perry was fishing by himself in a small canoe. Other fishermen noticed the canoe overturned about 4 p.m. and notified state wardens.

Warden service divers found fishing equipment including some seat cushions on the lake’s shore, Latti said. They found Perry’s body about 6 p.m.

A New Jersey teen who came to Maine to spend a week with friends at a camp on Millinocket Lake drowned two weeks ago when his canoe overturned. Two other teens swam to shore.

None were wearing life preservers and they did not bring any in their canoe, officials said.

AP-ES-06-09-04 0950EDT