43 U.S.C. § 2103
Section 2103 · Rights of access
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Deep Sea Research, Inc. v. Brother Jonathan (1995)
Most recently applied in Northeast Research, LLC v. One Shipwrecked Vessel (September 2013)
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.
In order to—
(1) clarify that State waters and shipwrecks offer recreational and educational opportunities to sport divers and other interested groups, as well as irreplaceable State resources for tourism, biological sanctuaries, and historical research; and
(2) provide that reasonable access by the public to such abandoned shipwrecks be permitted by the State holding title to such shipwrecks pursuant to section 2105 of this title,
it is the declared policy of the Congress that States carry out their responsibilities under this chapter to develop appropriate and consistent policies so as to—
(A) protect natural resources and habitat areas;
(B) guarantee recreational exploration of shipwreck sites; and
(C) allow for appropriate public and private sector recovery of shipwrecks consistent with the protection of historical values and environmental integrity of the shipwrecks and the sites.
In managing the resources subject to the provisions of this chapter, States are encouraged to create underwater parks or areas to provide additional protection for such resources. Funds available to States from grants from the Historic Preservation Fund shall be available, in accordance with the provisions of title I of the National Historic Preservation Act, for the study, interpretation, protection, and preservation of historic shipwrecks and properties.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
The National Historic Preservation Act, referred to in subsec. (b), is Pub. L. 89–665, Oct. 15, 1966, 80 Stat. 915, as amended. Title I of the Act is classified generally to sections 470a, 470b, and 470c to 470h–3 of Title 16, Conservation. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see section 470(a) of Title 16 and Tables.