HQ 109553: Transportation of passengers between United States ports or places on a foreign-built vessel

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 109553

                                     July 5, 1988


            VES 3-02 CO:R:P:C  109553 BEW

            CATEGORY:  Carriers

            Captain Tony Benado
            4200 South Harbor Boulevard
            Oxnard, California 93035

            RE:  Transportation of passengers between United States ports
                 or places on a foreign-built vessel

            Dear Captain Benado:

                 This is in reference to your letter of June 8, 1988,
            concerning the transportation of passengers for hire between
            Oxnard, California, and the Santa Barbara Channel Islands on a
            foreign built sailing vessel.

            FACTS:

                 You state that you wish to take 6 people or less for hire,
            out to the Santa Barbara Channel Islands (SBCI) which lies 20
            miles offshore from Oxnard, California, that you do not allow
            fishing as the vessel is a private yacht, and that you will be
            departing and returning to the same slip.  You cite Customs
            Service Decision (C.S.D.) 79-415 as a basis for allowing you to
            use your vessel as proposed.  You telephonically stated that
            the vessel would anchor approximately one mile offshore of the
            SBCI, where passengers would disembark the vessel to snorkel,
            swim and possibly walk along the shoreline at SBCI.

            ISSUE:

                 Whether the transportation of passengers between the coast
            of California and the (SBCI) on a foreign-built sailing vessel
            for hire is a violation of the coastwise laws.

            LAW ANALYSIS:

                 Generally, the coastwise laws (e.g., 46 U.S.C. App. 289
            and 883, and 46 U.S.C. 12106 and 12110) prohibit the
            transportation of merchandise or passengers between points in
            the United States embraced within the coastwise laws in any













                                         - 2 -


            vessel other than a vessel built in and documented under the
            laws of the United States, and owned by persons who are
            citizens of the United States.

                 Under the provisions of 46 U.S.C. App. 289, no foreign
            vessel shall transport passengers between ports or places in
            the United States, either directly or by way of a foreign port.
            The penalty for violating this section of the law is $200 for
            each passenger so transported and landed.

                 In interpreting the coastwise laws as applied to the
            transportation of passengers, we have ruled that the carriage
            of passengers entirely within territorial waters, even though
            they disembark at their point of embarkation and the vessel
            touches no other point, is considered coastwise trade subject
            to the coastwise laws.  The transportation of passengers to the
            high seas or foreign waters and back to the point of
            embarkation, often called a "voyage to nowhere," is not
            considered coastwise trade, assuming the passengers do not go
            ashore, even temporarily, at another coastwise point.  We have
            ruled that the carriage of fishing parties for hire, even if
            the vessel proceeds beyond territorial waters and returns to
            the point of the passengers' original embarkation, is
            considered coastwise trade subject to the coastwise laws.  The
            territorial waters of the United States consist of the
            territorial sea, defined as the belt, 3 nautical miles wide,
            adjacent to the coast of the United States and seaward of the
            territorial sea baseline.

                 The vessel under consideration, as a foreign-built vessel,
            would be precluded from engaging in the coastwise trade.  The
            vessel could be used to transport passengers from a point in
            the United States (e.g. Oxnard, California) to the high seas
            beyond territorial waters and back to the same point, assuming
            that the vessel touched at no other coastwise point during the
            transportation and was not engaged in charter party fishing.
            However, the vessel would be prohibited from carrying
            passengers on such a voyage if the passengers disembarked the
            vessel at the SBCI, another coastwise port subject to the
            coastwise laws of the United States.   This is so because on
            such a voyage the passengers would be transported between ports
            or places in the United States (see 46 U.S.C. 289).  That is,
            the passengers would be transported from a place in territorial
            waters of Oxnard, California, to a point or place in the
            territorial waters of the SBCI, and they would be transported
            from SBCI to Oxnard.















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                 You cite C.S.D. 79-415, in your request.  That decision is
            distinguished from the circumstances in your case because the
            the vessel in that case proceeded to a point on the high seas
            and returned to its place of embarkation without landing
            passengers at a second point in the United States embraced
            within the coastwise laws.

            HOLDING:

                 The transportation by a non-coastwise-qualified vessel,
            such as your foreign-built sailing vessel, of passengers for
            hire between coastwise points, which includes points or places
            in the territorial waters of SBCL, is a violation of the
            coastwise laws.

                                              Sincerely,




                                              B. James Fritz
                                              Chief
                                              Carrier Rulings Branch

























            CO:R:P:C:BEWhiting:6/24/88:retyped:7/1/88