Wallis and Futuna Territorial Sea

To establish national maritime boundaries.

Species of Concern: Multiple

Restrictions

France has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of these waters. Fishing restrictions, such as bag limits, seasons, and size restrictions apply. Please consult the local fishing laws, some of which are referenced on this page, for more information. The following activities related to fisheries are not allowed:
1. The net parts of any fishing gear, with the exception of driftnets and creels, must not have a mesh size of less than 45 mm in the smallest dimension.
2. The total installed length of standing (temporarily set or anchored) or drift nets may not exceed two hundred and fifty meters. Standing or drifting nets must be marked with floats at both ends.
3. Dragging gears, i.e., nets or dredges that are dragged by mechanical means on the sea floor or between two waters, may not be used inside the lagoon.
4. The use of explosive substances to kill, destroy, frighten or paralyze marine animals.
5. The possession on board any vessel of explosive substances.
6. The use of crowbars, pickaxes or any tool or engine likely to disturb the habitat of marine fauna.
6. The use of any natural or artificial substance likely to destroy, intoxicate, sedate, or paralyze marine animals.
7. To attach a boat or a line to a FAD buoy (fish aggregating device).
8. To set lines in the direction of the current upstream of a FAD buoy when fishing with vertical or horizontal longlines.
9. To troll within fifty meters of a FAD buoy.
10. The use of any equipment, autonomous or not, allowing an immersed person to breathe without coming back to the surface for the exercise of underwater fishing (collection of shellfish constitutes an act of fishing).
11. Underwater fishing at night, between sunset and sunrise.
12. The simultaneous possession on board a boat of underwater fishing gear and a device that allows a submerged person to breathe without returning to the surface.
13. It is forbidden for underwater fishers: to approach within fifty meters of marine culture establishments, marked nets, and fishing gear, and to capture marine animals caught in nets set by other fishers.
14. Fishing of spiny lobsters specimens (all species of the Panuliridae family) in moult (soft shell).
15. To fish for specimens of spiny lobsters (all species of the Panuliridae family) carrying eggs.
16. To catch specimens of spiny lobsters (all species of the Panuliridae family) whose size, measured from the yeus (between the base of the supraorbital spines) to the back of the head (at the posterior end of the cephalotorax), is less than seventy-five millimeters.
17. Fishing of coconut crab (Birgus latro) specimens with a thorax length of less than thirty-six millimeters, or carrying eggs, or with an orange-colored abdomen.
18. Exploitation of trocas whose largest diameter is less than nine centimeters or greater than twelve centimeters. Any person who fishes for trocas must have on the fishing grounds a gauge with two rigid rings of nine and twelve centimeters of internal diameter to be able to apply the rule of measurement. Trocas that do not pass through the nine-centimeter ring must be immediately thrown back into the sea at the fishing grounds.
19. Fishing is prohibited for vessels equipped for deep-sea fishing.
20. Fish, capture, injure, kill, detain, poison or intoxicate any baleen whale (family Mysticetes: whales) or toothed whale (family Odontocetes: sperm whales, orcas, dolphins, porpoises, etc.), and to work on the carcasses, sell, purchase, import or export these animals, alive or dead, as well as all parts or products. .
21. Capture of marine turtles of all species throughout the territory and in the waters surrounding it. Destruction of sea turtle nests, removal, possession and sale of eggs, as well as the possession, import, sale, purchase and export for commercial purposes of turtles in the live or dead state and of any parts or products obtained from these animals.
22. Marketing, in any form, of marine animals, including corals, caught from vessels or boats not equipped for professional fishing.

Allowed

Please consult local laws for information on allowed activities. For fishing purposes only devices intended directly or indirectly to kill or capture marine animals, not using the detonating power of a chemical mixture or the release of a compressed gas, are authorized. The export of trocas shells is subject to authorization issued annually by the head of the fisheries department. In the waters bordering the Wallis Islands (Uvéa and its islets) and Horn Islands (Futuna and Alofi), as well as in the territorial waters, fishing by recreational boats is limited to 50 kg of fish per unit and per trip, with the exception of single catches of more than 50 kg and official sporting events organized by the association.