---
kind: "section"
citation: "43 U.S.C. § 2101"
title: "43"
title_heading: "Public Lands"
number: "2101"
heading: "Findings"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/43/2101"
units:
  - "Chapter 39 — Abandoned Shipwrecks"
---

# §2101. Findings


The Congress finds that—

- (a) [States](/usc/43/2102.md?p=e) have the responsibility for management of a broad range of living and nonliving resources in [State](/usc/43/2102.md?p=e) waters and [submerged lands](/usc/43/2102.md?p=f); and
- (b) included in the range of resources are certain abandoned [shipwrecks](/usc/43/2102.md?p=d), which have been deserted and to which the owner has relinquished ownership rights with no retention.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 100–298, § 2, Apr. 28, 1988, 102 Stat. 432.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 100–298, § 1, Apr. 28, 1988, 102 Stat. 432, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987’.”