VES-3-02-OT: RR:BSTC:CCI H008902 GG
Mr. Jack Baldauf
Deputy Director, Science Operations
Integrated Ocean Drilling Program/JOI Alliance
Texas A&M University
100 Discovery Drive
College Station, TX 77845
RE: Coastwise Transportation; Oceanographic/Scientific Research; Ocean Drilling Program; Use of Foreign-Flagged Vessel; 46 U.S.C. §§ 55102 & 55103
Dear Mr. Baldauf:
This is in response to your correspondence of March 27, 2007, in which you inquire about the applicability of the coastwise laws to a foreign-flagged vessel for use in conducting scientific ocean drilling. Our ruling is set forth below.
FACTS
A foreign-flagged vessel, JOIDES RESOLUTION (the “vessel”), is intended to be in a scientific ocean-drilling initiative for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), an international research program that explores the history and structure of the earth as recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the seafloor through ocean basin exploration. The IODP program’s scientific ocean-drilling initiative consists of a collaborative union formed between the United States, Japan, and the European Union. Within the IODP collaborative structure, the United States is responsible for operating the riserless drilling vessel, the JOIDES RESOLUTION. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected Texas A&M University (TAMU) to be one of three United States Implementing Organizations (USIO) for the IODP. TAMU is responsible for providing a full array of scientific services, including vessel and drilling operations. The vessel began operations in 1978, and was converted to a scientific research vessel in 1985 when it began working for the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). The ship has a scientific facility where several laboratories are organized on multiple floors. The operations on the vessel continue 24 hours a day. The ship’s complement consists of approximately 50 scientists and technicians, and approximately 65 crew members. Typically, the transfer of people and cargo are avoided during IODP operations; however, on rare occasions the transfer of people such as specialists, scientists, and engineers, or transfer of critical equipment such as operational or laboratory equipment is required.
You ask whether the JOIDES RESOLUTION, a Liberian registered vessel, is prohibited from making back-to-back U.S. port calls under the Jones Act. To that end, you request an exemption to the Jones Act, allowing the vessel to call in consecutive U.S. ports as necessary.
ISSUE
Whether the activities described under the FACTS section above constitute coastwise trade, thereby requiring the use of a coastwise-qualified vessel.
LAW AND ANALYSIS
Generally, the coastwise laws (46 U.S.C. §§ 55102 & 55103, recodified by Pub. L. 109-304, enacted on October 6, 2006) prohibit the transportation of passengers or merchandise between points in the United States embraced within the coastwise laws in any vessel other than a vessel built in, documented under the laws of, and owned by citizens of the United States. Such a vessel, after it has obtained a coastwise endorsement from the U.S. Coast Guard, is said to be “coastwise qualified.” Thus, while a non-coastwise-qualified vessel can make port calls, it cannot transport merchandise or passengers between U.S. ports without violating the coastwise laws.
The coastwise laws generally apply to points in the territorial sea, which is defined as the belt, three nautical miles wide, seaward of the territorial sea baseline, and to points located in internal waters, landward of the territorial sea baseline.
You state that the subject vessel will be used for a scientific ocean-drilling initiative in an international research program that explores the history and structure of the earth as recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the seafloor through ocean basin exploration. In applying the coastwise laws, in this context, and in accordance with previous Headquarters rulings, Customs ((now Customs and Border Protection (CBP)) has long held that the use of a vessel solely to engage in research is not a use in coastwise trade (Headquarters ruling 109815, dated December 5, 1988). Specifically, we have held that the use of non-coastwise-qualified vessels to engage in oceanographic research, including the transportation of persons participating in the research from, to, and between research sites in United States territorial waters, whether or not the persons participating in the research temporarily leave the vessels at the research sites, would not violate the coastwise laws. Of course, if such a vessel transported between coastwise points, or provided part of the transportation between coastwise points of, any persons other than the vessel crew and scientists engaged in the oceanographic research or any merchandise other than the usual supplies and equipment necessary for that research, the coastwise laws would be violated (Headquarters rulings 110399, dated August 23, 1989, and 112992, dated January 12, 1994).
The vessel under consideration is prohibited from engaging in the coastwise trade. However, we conclude that the use of the vessel as described, for a scientific ocean-drilling initiative in an international research program that explores the history and structure of the earth as recorded in sediments and rocks beneath the seafloor through ocean basin exploration is considered oceanographic research, not coastwise trade. In addition, the transportation of the scientists who work on the vessel to, from, and between the research sites in United States territorial waters in the vessel under consideration would not violate the coastwise laws. Parenthetically, we note that neither would the transportation of the equipment and supplies necessary for the research, where they are loaded onto the vessel to the points where they are unloaded from the vessel violate the merchandise coastwise law (46 U.S.C. § 55102).
HOLDING
Under the facts presented in this case, the anticipated scientific research and ocean drilling operations may be performed by the foreign-flagged vessel without violating the coastwise laws.
Sincerely,
Glen E. Vereb
Chief
Cargo Security, Carriers and Immigration Branch