---
kind: "section"
citation: "33 U.S.C. § 1441"
title: "33"
title_heading: "Navigation and Navigable Waters"
number: "1441"
heading: "Monitoring and research program"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/33/1441"
units:
  - "Chapter 27 — Ocean Dumping"
  - "Subchapter II — Research"
---

# §1441. Monitoring and research program


The [Secretary](/usc/33/1402.md?p=h) of Commerce, in coordination with the [Secretary](/usc/33/1402.md?p=h) of the Department in which the Coast Guard is operating and with the [Administrator](/usc/33/1402.md?p=a) shall, within six months of October 23, 1972, initiate a comprehensive and continuing program of monitoring and research regarding the effects of the [dumping](/usc/33/1402.md?p=f) of [material](/usc/33/1402.md?p=c) into [ocean waters](/usc/33/1402.md?p=b) or other coastal waters where the tide ebbs and flows or into the Great Lakes or their connecting waters.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 92–532, title II, § 201, Oct. 23, 1972, 86 Stat. 1060; Pub. L. 99–272, title VI, § 6061, Apr. 7, 1986, 100 Stat. 131.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1986—Pub. L. 99–272 struck out provision which had required the Secretary of Commerce to report from time to time, not less frequently than annually, his findings under this section (including an evaluation of the short-term ecological effects and the social and economic factors involved) to the Congress.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Transfer of Functions

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.