46 U.S.C. § 30527(a) provides that a owner “of a vessel transporting passengers between ports in the United States” cannot contract for a release of liability for negligently caused injiury or death due to the owner’s or its employees’ negligence. This decision holds that the statute does not apply to forbid enforcement of a release obtained by the owner of a vessel that picks up passengers from and returns them to the same port without docking elsewhere in between.