; (B) the paid out not unladen doctrine, which provides that pipe or cable laying operations are not coastwise trade subject to the Jones Act—even when the pipe is laid between two coastwise points, and in spite of Congress’ statutory prohibition against foreign vessels performing any part of the transportation by water of merchandise; (C) the paid out not unladen doctrine is also used by foreign vessel operators to justify the transportation of merchandise attached to the paid out pipe or cable; (D) the lifting operations exemption, which purports to permit self-propelled movements by a vessel when using a crane or like equipment to install or remove merchandise on or from offshore facilities or subsea infrastructure; (E) the decommissioning activity exemption, which purports that merchandise transported as a result of decommissioning—i.e., the restoration of the sea-floor and the water surface by plugging and abandoning the well and removing the installation and facility—is not subject to the Jones Act; (F) the offshore research vessel misapplications, which improperly extends the exclusion for oceanographic or limnological research vessels to commercial research activities that directly support the exploration for, or development, production, transportation, or transmission of, resources, on the outer Continental Shelf