46 U.S.C. § 70001 — Vessel traffic services

(a) In General. Subject to section 70004, the Secretary may create, run, maintain, improve, or expand vessel^* traffic services in United States ports, navigable waters, and areas covered by international agreements. These services may control or supervise vessel traffic and protect navigation and the marine environment. They may include reporting and operating rules, surveillance and communication systems, routing systems, and fairways. The Secretary must require appropriate vessels in a service area to use or follow the service. The Secretary may require navigation, communication, electronic relative-motion-analyzer, or other equipment needed for the service or vessel safety. But, using only this chapter, the Secretary may not require fishing vessels under 300 gross tons under section 14502, or an alternate tonnage under sections 14302 and 14104, or recreational vessels 65 feet or less to have or use that equipment.

The Secretary may control traffic in hazardous areas or during poor visibility, bad weather, congestion, or other hazards by setting entry, movement, and departure times; creating routing schemes; setting size, speed, draft, and operating limits; and limiting operation to vessels with characteristics or abilities needed for safe operation. The Secretary may require prearrival messages from vessels going to a United States port or place, early enough for traffic planning. The messages may require information not already recorded that the Secretary finds necessary for vessel control or port and marine-environment safety. The Secretary may prohibit devices that interfere with communication or navigation equipment. That power does not cover devices certified by the Federal Communications Commission for maritime transmissions and used in 157.1875–157.4375 MHz or 161.7875–162.0375 MHz.

(b) National Policy. (1) Establishment and update. (A) Within one year after this section was enacted, the Secretary must establish and publish in the Federal Register a national policy for all vessel traffic service centers. The policy must include local variances allowed by subsection (c). (B) The Secretary must periodically update the policy and publish each update in the Federal Register or on a publicly available website. (2) Elements. At a minimum, the policy must standardize personnel titles, roles, and responsibilities; center organization, supervision, reporting chains, and processes; directions for using each center’s authority to direct or control vessel movement when safety justifies it; thresholds and measures for monitoring, informing, recommending, and directing traffic; national traffic-management procedures and protocols; training; certification and competency evaluations; standard operating language; and policies and procedures for collecting, storing, managing, archiving, and sharing vessel-incident and near-miss data.

(c) Local Variances. (1) The Secretary may allow local differences needed for unique traffic, waterway features, or other factors that improve navigation safety. (2) The Captain of the Port for a center may develop and submit regional policies in addition to the national policy. They may address local traffic conditions and volume, geography, water-body features, waterway use, and other appropriate factors. (3) Within 180 days after receiving them, the Secretary must review those policies, and the Captain of the Port must implement the ones the Secretary approves. (4) The Secretary must keep a central record of approved local variances.

(d) Cooperative Agreements. (1) The Secretary may make cooperative agreements with public or private agencies, authorities, associations, institutions, corporations, organizations, or other persons to perform the functions described in subsection (a)(1). (2) For service areas crossing international borders, the Secretary may make bilateral or cooperative agreements with international partners to operate services jointly and manage those areas jointly, including collecting, sharing, assessing, and analyzing information controlled by the partner. (3)(A) A nongovernmental entity may not perform an inherently governmental function under this subsection. (B) “Inherently governmental function” means an activity so closely tied to the public interest that a Federal Government officer or employee must perform it. It includes using government authority with discretion or using judgment to make a government decision. This section does not define the quoted term beyond this paragraph. (4) Before public release, the Coast Guard Commandant must remove information that could identify people or entities, including from near-miss incidents.

(e) Performance Evaluation. (1) The Secretary must create and use a standard method to evaluate vessel traffic service centers. (2) At a minimum, the method must collect and analyze, for each center’s service area, vessel-traffic volume by vessel type; the total flammable, combustible, or hazardous liquid cargo transported, by vessel type as stated in the Notice of Arrival when applicable or determined another way; near-miss data; marine-casualty data; how operators used traffic-management authority during near misses and marine casualties; and any other methods the Secretary considers appropriate. (3) Within one year after this paragraph was enacted and every two years afterward, the Secretary must report the evaluation to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The report must include recommendations for improving safety and performance and data on marine casualties and near-miss incidents during the reporting period.

(f) Risk Assessment Program. (1) The Secretary must create a continuous program to evaluate and reduce safety risks in every service area, improve safety, and reduce the risk of oil or hazardous-material discharges in navigable waters. (2) With stakeholders and the public, the Secretary must create a standard assessment method that collects and manages all information needed to identify and analyze possible dangerous navigation trends. (3)(A) Each assessment must cover traffic volume by vessel type; total flammable, combustible, or hazardous liquid cargo by vessel type; near-miss-event data; marine-casualty data; latitude and longitude of near misses and casualties; recurring risks such as weather, ice, seasonal currents, tides, water depth, and landform; and weather information coordinated with NOAA’s Administrator. (B) The Secretary must keep all collected information and standardize its format so it can be statistically analyzed to calculate at least the incident rate, intervention rate, and casualty-prevention rate for each service area. (4)(A) Consistent with 5 U.S.C. § 552, the Secretary must make assessments and collected information public. (B) The Secretary must try to work with international partners to make information collected, shared, and analyzed under subsection (d)(2) public. (C) The Commandant must remove identifying information before public release, including from near-miss incidents.

(g) Vessel Traffic Service Training. (1)(A) The Secretary must create a nationwide training program for all service directors, operators, and watchstanders. (B) The program and local variances must include, at minimum: (i) realistic traffic scenarios, as practicable, integrating the national policy, international rules under the International Navigational Rules Act of 1977 (33 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), inland rules in 33 CFR part 83, traffic-service authority, and communication with users; (ii) proficiency in using, interpreting, and combining display-system data such as radar and automatic-identification-system feeds; (iii) practical application of the international and inland rules; (iv) proficiency with radio and other systems needed to use service authority; (v) the Standard Marine Communication Phrases adopted by the International Maritime Organization on April 4, 2000, as amended and consolidated, or a successor resolution; (vi) as much as possible, guidance and recommendations in relevant training from the International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities; (vii) minimum training hours before unsupervised qualification; (viii) local geographic and operational familiarization; and (ix) other components the Secretary considers appropriate. (2)(A) The Secretary must create a standard competency-qualification process for all center personnel. (B) It must use measurable proficiency thresholds. (3)(A) Personnel whose duties include communicating with, interacting with, or directing vessels in a service area, as identified by the national policy, must pass a United States international and inland navigation rules test created by the Secretary. (B) The Secretary sets the test content and passing standard. (C) The Secretary must set testing intervals of no more than once every five years.

(h) Research on Vessel Traffic. (1) After consulting subject-matter experts, the Secretary must research better ways to monitor radio communications and identify and address unsafe situations in a service area, considering the data described in subsection (f)(3)(A). (2)(A) After consulting local stakeholders and subject-matter experts, the Secretary must study whether professional mariners can feasibly and beneficially represent personnel on each center’s watch floor, and determine the costs and benefits. (B) The Secretary must add professional-mariner representation at centers where the research finds it feasible and beneficial.

(i) Inclusion of Identification System on Certain Vessels. (1) The National Navigation Safety Advisory Committee must advise and recommend to the Secretary on the practicality, cost, regulatory burden, and navigation effects of putting vessel automatic identification systems on unpowered vessels carrying flammable, combustible, or hazardous liquid cargo. (2) Based on that evaluation, the Secretary must issue regulations the Secretary considers appropriate for such systems.

(j) Periodic Review of Vessel Traffic Service Needs. (1) Using the performance evaluation and risk assessment, the Secretary must periodically review service areas to decide whether they need additional services or whether an area should be moved or changed. (2) Each review must assess traffic volume by vessel type; total flammable, combustible, or hazardous liquid cargo by vessel type; near-miss data; casualty data; locations by latitude and longitude; recurring risks such as weather, ice, currents, tides, depth, and topography; and weather information coordinated with NOAA’s Administrator. (3) The Secretary must seek input from port and waterway stakeholders to find areas with more vessel conflicts or casualties that could benefit from routing measures or special service areas to improve safety, port security, and environmental protection. (4) The Commandant must remove identifying information before public release, including from near-miss incidents.

(k) Liability Limits. (1) A Coast Guard service pilot acting within the pilot’s duties at a Coast Guard center, while supervised by a Coast Guard officer, member, or employee, is not liable for damages caused by or related to the pilot’s information, advice, or communication help unless the pilot acted with gross negligence or willful misconduct. (2) A non-Federal entity operating a vessel-traffic information or advisory service under a signed written Coast Guard agreement, and a pilot acting for it, is not liable for such damages unless the entity or pilot acted with gross negligence or willful misconduct.

(l) The notice-of-arrival regulations required by 46 U.S.C. § 70001 note for foreign vessels on the Outer Continental Shelf do not apply to a vessel documented under section 12105 unless it arrives from a foreign port or place. (m) Nothing here changes the Secretary’s existing authority to improve navigation, vessel safety, and marine-environment protection or to protect life and property at sea. (n) Definitions. “Hazardous liquid cargo” has the meaning given in regulations under 49 U.S.C. § 5103. “Marine casualty” has the meaning given in regulations under section 6101(a). “Vessel traffic service area” means an area specified in 33 CFR part 161, subpart C, or a successor rule. “Vessel traffic service center” means a center that provides services in such an area. “Near miss incident” means an occurrence or series of occurrences with the same origin, involving one or more vessels or facilities, that substantially threatens a marine casualty. “De-identified” means removing information likely to identify specific people or entities in reports, data, or other information. This section does not otherwise define these quoted terms.