2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWENTY-THREE - Public Planning and Development (§§ 1 — 11273) › PART IV - Navigation and Marine Trade (§§ 2101 — 3223) › Chapter 101 - Dock and Harbor Act of Puerto Rico of 1968 (§§ 2101 — 2801) › Subchapter I - General Provisions (§§ 2101 — 2113) › § 2103 - Definitions

The following terms shall have for the purposes of the application of this chapter, the significance hereinafter indicated, unless otherwise clearly indicated by the context of this chapter, and the use of the term in the singular shall include the plural and vice versa:
(a) Puerto Rico. — Shall mean the Island of Puerto Rico and the adjacent islands and waters within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(b) Authority. — Means the Puerto Rico Ports Authority created by §§ 331—352 of this title, except that in all matters concerning the Port of the Americas, the word “Authority” shall mean the Port of the Americas Authority.
(c) Director. — Shall mean the Executive Director of the Authority.
(d) Administrator. — Means the Executive Director of the Ports Authority, as set forth in the provisions of §§ 331 et seq. of this title, except that in all matters concerning the Port of the Americas, the word “Administrator” shall mean the Executive Director of the Port of the Americas Authority.
(e) Vessel or Boat. — Shall mean any vehicle used for the transportation of persons or things on the water.
(f) Bigger boat. — Shall mean all kinds of vessels and boats engaged in the transportation of freight and passengers between any ports.
(g) Smaller boat. — Shall mean any vessel not a bigger boat.
(h) Navigable waters of Puerto Rico. — Shall mean the navigable waters under the control or dominion of Puerto Rico.
(i) Harbor. — Shall mean every part of the coast where a vessel may anchor, be moored to another vessel or to a dock, or has fastened itself to land; and the term notwithstanding any condition, shall mean any harbor of Puerto Rico.
(j) Dock. — Shall mean any work used for the mooring of vessels to the land or for the loading or unloading of persons or things; but the term shall not include docks under the immediate control of the United States.
(k) Trade. — Shall mean the transportation of passengers or merchandise by means of a vessel.
(l) Marine trade. — Shall mean the trade up to, from or within any harbor of Puerto Rico, or in its navigable waters; but the term does not include, for the purposes of §§ 2201 and 2301 of this title, acts, contracts or commercial transactions other than those referred to in §§ 2401—2418 and 2501—2517 of this title.
(m) Coastwise trade. — Shall mean the trade between ports of Puerto Rico or between the latter and ports within the coastwise trade of the United States.
(n) Terrestrial maritime zone. — Shall mean the space of the coasts of Puerto Rico touched by the sea during its ebb and flow, where tides are noticeable, and where the largest waves during a storm are felt in places where tides are not noticed, and it includes the lands recovered from the sea and the river borders up to the place where they are navigable or where the tides are noticed; and the term, notwithstanding any condition, shall mean the terrestrial maritime zone of Puerto Rico.
(o) Port zone. — Shall mean that part of the terrestrial maritime zone and other adjacent lands to a port delimited as harbor zone of the particular harbor in question as provided in this chapter.
(p) Person. — Shall mean any natural or artificial person, or any association, partnership, organization, firm or enterprise; and it includes every head, director, supervisor, officer, manager, official, promoter, administrator, agent, representative or consignee of any person.
(q) Ship owner. — Shall mean not only the owner of the vessel but the person who in any manner has chartered or rented the vessel.
(r) Ship captain. — Shall mean the person having direct command of the ship and of its crew.
(s) Agent. — Shall mean, in connection with a ship, its consignee or the person who in any other manner represents in Puerto Rico the owner of the ship or its captain; and in connection with its cargo, its consignee or the person that in any manner represents in Puerto Rico the owner of the ship’s cargo.
(t) Port pilot. — Shall mean the person with a license from the Authority to act as such in the port or ports designated in the license, and it includes those who are authorized to act as pilots under Act No. 59 of April 30, 1928; and the term “pilot”, notwithstanding any condition, shall mean “port pilot” as herein defined.
(u) Pilot service. — Shall mean the service rendered to a ship by a port pilot helping the ship to enter and leave the port and to anchor, moor and move it in the harbor or from one dock to another.
(v) Tariff, rent or anchorage fee. — Shall mean the charge imposed on a ship and collected from its owner or captain or from the agent of any of these two, for mooring the ship to a dock or to any other part of the harbor zone in which it is carrying out its loading and unloading operations by using a dock, or by anchoring it to another ship so anchored.
(w) Tariff, rent or wharfage fee. — Shall mean the charge imposed on the cargo of a ship to be collected from the owner of the cargo or from his agent for loading or unloading it by making use of a dock.
(x) Tariff, rent or delay fee. — Shall mean the charge imposed on the cargo or merchandise and collected from its owner or from his agent for retaining it in a dock or in any other part of the harbor zone in excess of the exemption period established for such purpose.
(y) Navigable waters of the Port of the Americas. — Shall mean the navigable waters of Puerto Rico adjacent to the Port of the Americas whose control by the Authority is necessary or convenient for the efficient operation of the Port of the Americas. The Board of Directors of the Port of the Americas Authority, upon consultation with the Ports Authority, shall determine the scope of the geographic area that will comprise the navigable waters of the Port of the Americas.
(z) Contracted entity. — Shall mean the private or public natural person or legal entity, or consortium thereof, selected by the Authority to develop, operate, or maintain the Port of the Americas.
(aa) Port of the Americas. — Shall mean the navigable waters of the Port of the Americas and its port zone, maritime land zone, lands submerged under port waters, and adjacent lands included in the geographic area within which the activities of the transshipment port located in the southern region of Puerto Rico are conducted, including piers, berths, wharves, jetties, breakwaters, dikes, docks, railroad connections, sidings, or other buildings, structures, facilities, or improvements used for navigation, the accommodation of ships and their cargo, the storage of cargo and containers, the handling of cargo and containers, the transfer activities, and any other activity incidental to the foregoing. The Board of Directors of the Port of the Americas Authority shall determine the scope of the geographic area that will comprise the Port of the Americas.
History —June 28, 1968, No. 151, p. 459, § 1, art. 1.03; Apr. 27, 1994, No. 14, § 1; Aug. 11, 2002, No. 171, § 21.