Location
Key Information
| 20,315 km2 | MARINE AREA |
| 20,315 km2 | TOTAL AREA i |
- Commercial marine life removal is prohibited
- Both commercial and recreational marine life removal are heavily restricted
- Recreational marine life removal is prohibited, and commercial marine life removal is restricted
Boundary: Flanders Marine Institute (2019). Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase: Maritime Boundaries and Exclusive Economic Zones (200NM), version 11. Available online at https://www.marineregions.org/. (Unmodified)
1.0
January 2023
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Purpose
To protect the diverse natural resources of Nigeria.
Species of Concern: sea turtles, fish, crabs, crayfish
Regulations Summary
Restrictions
In accordance with the Sea Fisheries Act, the following restrictions apply:
1. No person shall operate or navigate any motor fishing boat for the purpose of fishing or a reefer vessel for the purpose of discharging frozen fish within the territorial waters of Nigeria or its exclusive economic zone, unless that boat or reefer vessel has been duly registered and licensed.
2. No person shall take or destroy or attempt to take or destroy any fish within the territorial waters of Nigeria or its exclusive economic zone by any of the following methods:
(a) by the use of any explosive substance;
or (b) by the use of any noxious or poisonous matter.
In accordance with the Sea Fisheries (Fishing) Regulations, the following restrictions apply:
1. No motor fishing boat (except canoes) shall fish within the first five nautical miles of the waters of the Nigeria continental shelf.
2. Travelers shall not use a cord-end with stretch mesh size of less than 76 mm (3 inches) when trawling for fish in the inshore waters or less than 44 mm when trawling for shrimps in areas approved for shrimp trawling.
3. A motor fishing boat licensed to fish or trawl shall not be operated for catching shrimp.
4. A fishing vessel licensed to fish in Nigeria's territorial waters, or its exclusive economic zone, shall not dump edible and marketable sea products at sea.
5. All fish caught by a motor fishing boat within Nigeria's territorial waters or its exclusive economic zone shall be landed at a Nigerian port and no part of it may be exported or shipped away from Nigeria at sea.
6. No motor fishing boat - (a) shall trawl or pair trawl within the first five nautical miles of the waters of the Nigeria continental shelf; or (b) of less than 20 gross tonnage shall trawl for shrimps within Nigerian inshore waters; (c) licensed for shrimping shall operate in waters shallower than 18 meters.
7. It shall be an offense to catch, land, retain, sell, expose or offer for sale or be in possession for the purpose of sale of seafish of any description being fish of smaller size than such size as may be prescribed in relation to sea fish of that description.
8. No person shall keep on board either dead or alive or offer for sale any lobster or crab less than 7 cm or 6 cm respectively.
9. No master of a licensed fishing vessel shall navigate such vessel within one half of a nautical mile of set gear approximately so marked as to be visible from a half mile away.
Allowed
Ships of all States, whether coastal or land-locked, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea. Please consult local laws for information on allowed activities.