43 U.S.C. § 2102
Section 2102 · Definitions
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 16 court decisions — leading case 746 F. Supp. 1334 - Zych v. Unidentified, Wrecked & Abandoned Vessel, Believed to Be the SB "Lady Elgin" (1990)
Most recently applied in 1715 Fleet-Queens Jewels, LLC v. Unidentified Wrecked & Abandoned Vessell (July 2017)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For purposes of this chapter—
(a) the term “embedded” means firmly affixed in the submerged lands or in coralline formations such that the use of tools of excavation is required in order to move the bottom sediments to gain access to the shipwreck, its cargo, and any part thereof;
(b) the term “National Register” means the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the Secretary of the Interior under section 470a of title 16;
(c) the terms “public lands”, “Indian lands”, and “Indian tribe” have the same meaning given the terms in the Archaeological Resource 1 Protection Act of 1979 (16 U.S.C. 470aa–470ll);
(d) the term “shipwreck” means a vessel or wreck, its cargo, and other contents;
(e) the term “State” means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands; and
(f) the term “submerged lands” means the lands—
(1) that are “lands beneath navigable waters,” as defined in section 1301 of this title;
(2) of Puerto Rico, as described in section 749 of title 48;
(3) of Guam, the Virgin Islands and American Samoa, as described in section 1705 of title 48; and
(4) of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, as described in section 801 of Public Law 94–241.2
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The Archaeological Resource Protection Act of 1979, referred to in subsec. (c), is Pub. L. 96–95, Oct. 31, 1979, 93 Stat. 721, as amended, which is classified generally to chapter 1B (§470aa et seq.) of Title 16, Conservation. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set out under section 470aa of Title 16 and Tables.
Section 801 of Public Law 94–241, referred to in subsec. (f)(4), probably means section 801 of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, as contained in section 1 of Pub. L. 94–241, Mar. 24, 1976, 90 Stat. 263, which is set out as a note under section 1801 of Title 48, Territories and Insular Possessions.