43 U.S.C. § 1301 — Definitions

When used in this subchapter and subchapter II—

(a) “Lands beneath navigable waters” means—

(1) all land within a State’s boundaries covered by nontidal waters that were navigable under United States law when the State joined the Union or later obtained sovereignty over the land and waters, up to the ordinary high-water mark as changed by accretion, erosion, and reliction;

(2) all land permanently or periodically covered by tidal waters, up to but not above the mean high-tide line, and seaward three geographical miles from the coast line of each State. It also includes land to a State boundary where, when the State joined the Union or as Congress later approved it, that boundary extended seaward, or into the Gulf of Mexico, beyond three geographical miles; and

(3) all filled, made, or reclaimed land that formerly was land beneath navigable waters as defined above.

(b) “Boundaries” includes a State’s seaward boundaries and its boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico or the Great Lakes as they existed when the State joined the Union, as Congress later approved them, or as section 1312 of this title extended or confirmed them. But “boundaries” and “lands beneath navigable waters” may not be interpreted to extend more than three geographical miles from the coast line into the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, or more than three marine leagues into the Gulf of Mexico. An exception applies when a boundary between a State and the United States under this subchapter or subchapter II has been or later is fixed by coordinates in a final United States Supreme Court decree. That boundary remains fixed at those coordinates and does not move.

(c) “Coast line” means the ordinary low-water line along the part of the coast directly touching the open sea, and the line marking the seaward edge of inland waters.

(d) “Grantees” and “lessees” include political subdivisions, municipalities, public and private corporations, and other persons holding grants or leases from a State, or from its predecessor sovereign if legally validated, for lands beneath navigable waters. The grant or lease must have been issued under the constitution, statutes, and court decisions of the State where the land is located, or of its predecessor sovereign. Nothing here gives a grantee or lessee rights or interests greater than those described here and in that person’s grant from the State or predecessor sovereign.

(e) “Natural resources” includes oil, gas, all other minerals, and fish, shrimp, oysters, clams, crabs, lobsters, sponges, kelp, and other marine animal and plant life. It does not include water power or using water to produce power.

(f) “Lands beneath navigable waters” does not include the beds of streams on land that is now or was formerly part of the United States public lands if the streams were not meandered during the public survey under United States law and the United States or a State lawfully patented or conveyed title to the stream beds to someone.

(g) “State” means a State of the Union.

(h) “Person” includes a natural person, association, State, political subdivision of a State, and private, public, or municipal corporation.