HQ 113559: Towing; Tug; Dredged Material; 46 U.S.C. 316(a)

Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.

                            HQ 113559

                        September 14, 1995

VES-10-03-R:IT:C 113559 GEV

CATEGORY: Carriers

Kenneth E. Gray
Manager, Inland Operations
Coastal Tug & Barge, Inc.
Post Office Box 025500
Miami, Florida 33102-5500

RE: Towing; Tug; Dredged Material; 46 U.S.C.  316(a)

Dear Mr. Gray:

     This is in response to your letter of September 1, 1995, requesting a ruling regarding the
use of your Panamanian-flag tug.  Our ruling on this matter is set forth below.

FACTS:

     A dredge company is currently engaged in a dredging operation in the Port of Miami,
Florida.  The operation calls for the dredge spoils to be barged 3.5 miles offshore and dumped on
the high seas at a permitted dump site.  At the present time, the dredge company is using its own
equipment for the operation.   However, the dredge company has approached Coastal Tug &
Barge, Inc. (Coastal) to provide a tug to move their barges from the port to the dump site and
return them to port.

     Coastal currently owns a Panamanian-flag tug working in Aruba and is currently
considering reflagging the vessel in the United States and using it to tow the spoil barges as
outlined above.  Coastal understands that the tug cannot be granted coastwise privileges.

ISSUE:

     Whether the use of foreign-flag tug, reflagged in the United States, to tow barges loaded
with dredge spoil from the Port of Miami to a site 3.5 miles offshore where the spoil is dumped,
and then return them to the Port of Miami is prohibited by 46 U.S.C. App.  316(a).

                              - 2 -

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

     Title 46, United States Code Appendix,  316(a) (46 U.S.C. App.  316(a), the coastwise
towing statute) prohibits the use of any vessel not having in force a certificate of documentation
endorsed for the coastwise or Great Lakes trades (46 U.S.C. 12106, 12107, respectively) to tow
any vessel other than a vessel in distress, from any point or place embraced within the coastwise
laws of the United States to another such port or place, either directly or by way of a foreign port
or place, or for any part of such towing. 

     In addition, the Act of June 7, 1988 (Pub.L. 100-329,  2, 102 Stat. 589), amended 
 316(a) to extend the restriction set forth therein to the towing of, "...any vessel transporting
valueless material or any dredged material, regardless of whether it has commercial value, from a
point or place in the United States or a point or place on the high seas within the Exclusive
Economic Zone as defined in the Presidential Proclamation of March 10, 1983, to another point
or place in the United States or a point or place on the high seas within that Exclusive Economic
Zone."  (Emphasis added)  

     The above-referenced Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is defined in Presidential
Proclamation 5030 of March 10, 1983 (48 FR 10605), as extending outward for 200 nautical
miles from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured.

     In regard to the tug in question, in view of the fact that it was at one time registered under
the Panamanian flag, it cannot be issued a certificate of documentation with a coastwise
endorsement (a fact recognized by Coastal; see the first proviso to 46 U.S.C. App.  883). 
Furthermore, since its proposed use in the dredge operation is clearly the towing of a vessel
transporting dredge material from a place in the United States (Port of Miami) to a point on the
high seas within the EEZ (3.5 miles offshore), such use would constitute a violation of 46 U.S.C.
App.  316(a).  

HOLDING:

     The use of a foreign-flag tug, reflagged in the United States, to tow barges loaded with
dredge spoil from the Port of Miami, to a site located 3.5 miles offshore where the spoil is
dumped, and then return them to the Port of Miami is prohibited by 46 U.S.C. App.  316(a).

                              Sincerely,




                              Arthur P. Schifflin
                              Chief
                              Carrier Rulings Branch