Papua New Guinea Territorial Sea

To protect the jurisdictional claim to area (up to 200 nautical miles) surrounding the Marshall Islands.

Species of Concern: multiple

Restrictions

Papua New Guinea 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.

1. The fishing of crustaceans with spawn attached to them or females having eggs is prohibited.
2. It is prohibited to fish protected or endangered species.
3. The use, attempted use, or possesions of chemical, poison, or noxious substances or materials, or dynamite or explosive substances or devices for the purpose of killing, taking, stunning, stupefying, or disabling fish, or in any way rendering fish more easily caught are prohibited.
4. The collecting, growing, trading, and selling of sea cucumbers requires a provinical license, reserved solely for PNG nationals. Sea cucumbers may only be bought and sold within the province they were harvested in. When fishing sea cucmbers, it is prohibited to use underwater breathing devices or during the compulsory closed season (1 November to 30 June). The use of lights or surface to fish sea cucumbers at night is prohibited. The sale or trade of undersized, broken, or parts of sea cucumbers are prohibited.
5. All purse seine fishing is prohibited in the territorial seas, including the use of all FADs, except territorial seas extending from archipelagic baselines where beyond 12 nautical miles from any point would include land or a declared coral reef. All bycatch taken by purse seine fishing must be reported to the appropriate regional fishing authority.
6. The taking mud crabs in moult stage is prohibited.
7. In general, all commercial fishing or extraction of marine resources is prohibited by external groups. Customary groups may require licenses to practice these commercial activities, see local laws for specific regulation.
7. Commercial shark fishing is prohibited inside six nautical miles from land, islands, or any emergent reef.

Allowed

1. Anyone participating in fishing activities that grow, take, import, store, process, sell, or export fish or fish products is required to obtain a fishing license.
2. The master or other operator of a licenses fishing vessel must complete and submit a daily catch report, in English, of all fishing activities in fishing waters to the National Fishery Authority.
3. The taking of fish for personal consumption, and not for sale or trading or for manufacturing purposes, or for sport or pleasure is allowed without a fishing license.
4. Customary fishing and artisanal fishing are permitted without a fishing license.
5. The dumping of fish waste or materials resulting from industrial fish processing operations is allowed only with a valid sea dumping permit.
6. Foreign fishing vessels require an access agreement, in additional to a fishing license, to enter and fish in Papua New Guinea fishing waters. Transhipment of fish by foreign vessels is only allowed pursuant to national fishing regulations or applicable access agreements. Intended transhipment must be reported to the National Fishery Authority prior to the trip, and is only allowed between designated ports.
7. Any fishing vessels engaged in tuna fishing are required to have an operating vessel monitoring system (VMS) installed onboard.
8. Fishing aggregating devices (FADs) are allowed for licensed vessels invovled in purse seine fishing. Anchored FADs are only allowed for national licensed vessels in the archipelagic waters north of 5 degrees South latitude. Drifting FADs are only allowed in the EEZ and high seas. The annual FAD fishing closure is from 30 June to 31 October, and all fishing vessels, fishing gear, or the use of other fish aggregating methods (underwater lights, water spray, or chumming) within one nautical mile from any FAD is prohibited.
9. Fishing for mud crabs is restricted to only traditional resource owners employing allowable fishing methods.
10. All mud crabs collected and purchased from the areas under the jurisdiction of the province must be exported from that Province. Licenses for the mud crab trade are reserved for PNG citizens only.
11. Mud crabs must be a carapace width of at least 12cm.
12. Longline fishing for sharks is permitted using only surface longline. Shark fishing licenses are reserved for PNG citizens. All catch and discards must be recorded in the shark longline logsheet by species and weight in kilograms; logsheets must be submitted within 15 days of the end of each voyage.