---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 70031"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "70031"
heading: "Definitions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/70031"
units:
  - "Subtitle VII — Security and Drug Enforcement"
  - "Chapter 700 — Ports and Waterways Safety"
  - "Subchapter IV — Definitions, Regulations, Enforcement, Investigatory Powers, Applicability"
---

# §70031. Definitions


As used in subchapters I through III and this subchapter, unless the context otherwise requires:

- (1) The term “marine environment” means—
  - (A) the [navigable waters of the United States](#3) and the land and resources therein and thereunder;
  - (B) the waters and fishery resources of any area over which the United States asserts exclusive fishery management authority;
  - (C) the seabed and subsoil of the Outer Continental Shelf of the United States, the resources thereof, and the waters superjacent thereto; and
  - (D) the recreational, economic, and scenic values of such waters and resources.
- (2) The term “Secretary” means the Secretary of the department in which the [Coast Guard](/usc/46/2101.md?p=2) is operating, except that such term means the Secretary of Transportation with respect to the application of this chapter to the Saint Lawrence Seaway.
- (3) The term “navigable waters of the United States” includes all waters of the territorial sea of the United States as described in Presidential Proclamation No. 5928 of December 27, 1988.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 115–282, title IV, § 401(a), Dec. 4, 2018, 132 Stat. 4261; amended Pub. L. 116–283, div. G, title LVXXXV [LXXXV], § 8507(a)(4), Jan. 1, 2021, 134 Stat. 4753.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### References in Text

Presidential Proclamation No. 5928, referred to in par. (3), is set out under section 1331 of Title 43, Public Lands.

### Amendments

2021—Pub. L. 116–283 substituted “I through III” for “A through C” in introductory provisions.