16 U.S.C. § 916c: Unlawful acts

Summary

People and vessels under U.S. jurisdiction must not hunt whales or take part in whaling that breaks the convention or rules from the Commission, this law, or the Secretary of Commerce. They also must not move, buy, sell, offer for sale, import, export, or keep any whale or whale product that was taken or processed in violation of those rules. They must make, keep, and give any records or reports those rules require, and let authorized officers look at them at reasonable times. It is illegal for anyone under U.S. jurisdiction to do what the convention or those rules forbid or to fail to do what they require.

Title 16, §916c

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Whaling, transporting, or selling violations; records; reports

It shall be unlawful for any person subject to the jurisdiction of the United States (1) to engage in whaling in violation of the convention or of any regulation of the Commission, or of this subchapter, or of any regulation of the Secretary of Commerce; (2) to ship, transport, purchase, sell, offer for sale, import, export, or have in possession any whale or whale products taken or processed in violation of the convention, or of any regulation of the Commission, or of this subchapter, or of any regulation of the Secretary of Commerce; (3) to fail to make, keep, submit, or furnish any record or report required of him by the convention, or by any regulation of the Commission, or by any regulation of the Secretary of Commerce, or to refuse to permit any officer authorized to enforce the convention, the regulations of the Commission, this subchapter, and the regulations of the Secretary of Commerce, to inspect such record or report at any reasonable time.

(b)Acts of commission or omission

It shall be unlawful for any person or vessel subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to do any act prohibited or to fail to do any act required by the convention, or by this subchapter, or by any regulation adopted by the Commission, or by any regulation of the Secretary of Commerce.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Emergency Assistance for Subsistence Whale Hunters Pub. L. 107–372, title IV, § 403, Dec. 19, 2002, 116 Stat. 3102, provided that: “Notwithstanding any provision of law, the use of a vessel to tow a whale taken in a traditional subsistence whale hunt permitted by Federal law and conducted in waters off the coast of Alaska is authorized, if such towing is performed upon a request for emergency assistance made by a subsistence whale hunting organization formally recognized by an agency of the United States Government, or made by a member of such an organization, to prevent the loss of a whale.”

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

to Secretary of Commerce from Secretary of the Interior by Reorg. Plan No. 4 of 1970, see note set out under section 916 of this title.

§916c Unlawful Acts