46 USC § 3102 - Immersion suits | Title 46 - Shipping | U.S. Code

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 113-99. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

(a) The Secretary shall by regulation require immersion suits on vessels designated by the Secretary that operate in the Atlantic Ocean north of 32 degrees North latitude or south of 32 degrees South latitude and in all other waters north of 35 degrees North latitude or south of 35 degrees South latitude. The Secretary may not exclude a vessel from designation under this section only because that vessel carries other lifesaving equipment.

(b) The Secretary shall establish standards for an immersion suit required by this section, including standards to guarantee adequate thermal protection, buoyance, and flotation stability.

(c)

(1) The owner, charterer, managing operator, agent, master, or individual in charge of a vessel violating this section or a regulation prescribed under this section is liable to the United States Government for a civil penalty of not more than $5,000. The vessel also is liable in rem for the penalty.

(2) The owner, charterer, managing operator, agent, master, or individual in charge of a vessel violating this section or a regulation prescribed under this section may be fined not more than $25,000, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.

prev | next

(a) The Secretary shall by regulation require immersion suits on vessels designated by the Secretary that operate in the Atlantic Ocean north of 32 degrees North latitude or south of 32 degrees South latitude and in all other waters north of 35 degrees North latitude or south of 35 degrees South latitude. The Secretary may not exclude a vessel from designation under this section only because that vessel carries other lifesaving equipment.

(b) The Secretary shall establish standards for an immersion suit required by this section, including standards to guarantee adequate thermal protection, buoyance, and flotation stability.

(c)

(1) The owner, charterer, managing operator, agent, master, or individual in charge of a vessel violating this section or a regulation prescribed under this section is liable to the United States Government for a civil penalty of not more than $5,000. The vessel also is liable in rem for the penalty.

(2) The owner, charterer, managing operator, agent, master, or individual in charge of a vessel violating this section or a regulation prescribed under this section may be fined not more than $25,000, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both.

Source

(Added Pub. L. 98–557, § 22(a)(1),Oct. 30, 1984, 98 Stat. 2871; amended Pub. L. 98–623, title VII, § 701(a)(1),Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3413; Pub. L. 99–36, § 2,May 15, 1985, 99 Stat. 68; Pub. L. 100–424, § 8(a)(1), (2),Sept. 9, 1988, 102 Stat. 1592, 1593.)

Codification

Pub. L. 98–557and Pub. L. 98–623enacted identical section 3102 of this title. Section 22 ofPub. L. 98–557, which enacted first identical section 3102 of this title, was repealed by section 2 ofPub. L. 99–36, set out below as a Repeal of Duplicate Section note.

Amendments

1988—Pub. L. 100–424substituted “Immersion” for “Exposure” in section catchline, and “immersion” for “exposure” in subsecs. (a) and (b).

Repeal of Duplicate Section 3102; References Thereto and Regulations and Actions Thereunder

Pub. L. 99–36, § 2,May 15, 1985, 99 Stat. 68, provided that: “Section 22 of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 1984 (Public Law 98–557; 98 Stat. 2871), and the amendments made by such section [enacting first identical section 3102 of this title and provisions set out as a note under this section and amending the analysis of chapter 31 of this title], are repealed as of November 8, 1984. Regulations prescribed and actions taken under, and references to, such section and the amendments made by such section are deemed to be regulations prescribed and actions taken under, and references to, section 701 of the Act of November 8, 1984 (Public Law 98–623; 98 Stat. 3413), and the amendments made by such section 701 [enacting second identical section 3102 of this title and provisions set out as a note under this section and amending the analysis of chapter 31 of this title].”

Regulations

Pub. L. 98–623, title VII, § 701(b), (c),Nov. 8, 1984, 98 Stat. 3413, provided:

“(b) Section 3102 of title 46, United States Code (as added by subsection (a) of this section), does not limit the authority of the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to prescribe regulations requiring exposure suits on vessels not required by section 3102 to have exposure suits.

“(c) The regulations prescribed under section 3102 of title 46, United States Code (as added by subsection (a) of this section), shall be effective not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this title [Nov. 8, 1984].” [Regulations effective Dec. 30, 1984, see 49 F.R. 50722, Dec. 31, 1984.]

[For transfer of authorities, functions, personnel, and assets of the Coast Guard, including the authorities and functions of the Secretary of Transportation relating thereto, to the Department of Homeland Security, and for treatment of related references, see sections 468 (b), 551 (d), 552 (d), and 557 of Title 6, Domestic Security, and the Department of Homeland Security Reorganization Plan of November 25, 2002, as modified, set out as a note under section 542 of Title 6.]

Similar provisions were contained in section 22(b), (c) ofPub. L. 98–557, which was repealed by section 2 ofPub. L. 99–36, set out above as a Repeal of Duplicate Section note.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Friday, May 3, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

46 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

This is a list of parts within the Code of Federal Regulations for which this US Code section provides rulemaking authority.

This list is taken from the Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules provided by GPO [Government Printing Office].

It is not guaranteed to be accurate or up-to-date, though we do refresh the database weekly. More limitations on accuracy are described at the GPO site.

33 CFR - Title 33—Navigation and Navigable Waters

33 CFR Part 144 - LIFESAVING APPLIANCES

46 CFR - Title 46—Shipping

46 CFR Part 108 - DESIGN AND EQUIPMENT

46 CFR Part 193 - FIRE PROTECTION EQUIPMENT

46 USC § 3102 - Immersion suits

U.S. Code Toolbox

Law about... Articles from Wex

Find a Lawyer

Get Involved