(a) “Department” means the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

(b) “Operator” means that person in control or in charge of the vessel while the vessel is in use.

(c) “Recreational boat” means any vessel manufactured or used primarily for noncommercial use; or leased, rented or chartered to another for the latter’s noncommercial use. Charter boats, head boats or other vessels under the command of a person who is licensed by the United States Coast Guard to carry passengers for hire shall be defined as commercial and therefore exempt from this definition of “recreational boat.”

(d) “Use” means operate, navigate or employ.

(e) “Vessel” includes every description of watercraft, other than a seaplane on the water, used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on the water.

(f) “Waters of this State” means any waters within the territorial limits of this State, the marginal sea adjacent to this State and the high seas when navigated as part of a journey or ride to or from the shores of this State.

66 Del. Laws, c. 193, §  1;  69 Del. Laws, c. 60, §  1; 

(a) Every operator of a recreational boat shall be responsible for providing for the protection of any child 12 years of age or under by having any such child who is aboard a recreational boat upon the waters of this State, properly wear a Type I, II, III or V Coast Guard-approved personal flotation device which is in good serviceable condition and of the proper size. This section shall not apply to any child who is below deck or in an enclosed cabin or while said recreational boat is anchored or moored.

(b) Whoever violates subsection (a) of this section shall be guilty of a class D environmental violation. The failure to provide a flotation device for more than 1 child in the same recreational boat at the same time, as required by this section, shall be treated as separate offenses.

66 Del. Laws, c. 193, §  1;  69 Del. Laws, c. 60, §  2;  79 Del. Laws, c. 421, §  15;