Underwater lights are illegal?

[84rzv500r]

I run blue transom lights and cockpit lights to aid ingress and egress when anchored at night, none of which are directly visible outside the boat, I have docking floods and spots that I use briefly to get visual confirmation of nav markers or terrain at night. no issues in the past 6 years... I will say if your boat has fishing rods hangin in off it, is displaying a dive flag while underway, or is obviously overloaded with souls, or its lobster season your more likely to get a closer look... what's really annoying is the 1,273,994,573 lumen green fish lights that people put in the canals at night and leave them on for 6 moths while they're not around and turn the canals into Green daylight

 

[Beachbummer]

I think while underway, anything beyond white from the rear is illegal . Green or Red would specially be offensive as it may give the wrong impression of your direction, and blue is reserved for police.

 

[GTBRMC]

I realize this thread has been going for a while. As many have said, there may be differences in local laws and / or degrees of enforcement. Note that the OP was boating on Lake Ontario. The Great Lakes have their own rules, enforced by USCG, and those rules might change when in Canadian waters. Great Lakes do not follow state or local rules (with some exceptions).

 

[212s]

From what I understand from marine police and others, is that underwater or cabin lights are not illegal unless they can be mistaken for navigational aids. We boat in and around Lake Ontario on the Canadian side and see many boats with underwater lights, cabin lights, tower speakers with lights, etc. and while stationary they generally get ignored unless they're partying too loud or anchored in the middle of the navigating channel causing confusion with the light show.