Barramundi fishery and licences

The annual commercial barramundi fishing season in the Northern Territory (NT) is from 1 February to 30 September.

You must have a licence to commercially fish for barramundi in the NT.

Licences

The fishery is restricted to 14 licences which can be bought, sold and leased. All are currently allocated.

Read more about buying, selling or leasing a commercial licence.

Fishing area

Commercial fishing for barramundi is allowed from the high water mark to 3 nautical miles seaward of the low water mark.

The fishing area is restricted to waters seaward from the coast, river mouths and legislated closed lines.

Commercial fishers must not fish between the Little Finnis River and the Wildman River.

This includes the Bynoe Harbour, Darwin Harbour and Shoal Bay and Kakadu National Park.

Permission is needed to enter Aboriginal land and water, including for commercial fishers. Permission to fish in Aboriginal waters is granted through Section 19 Land Use Agreements managed by the Northern Land Council (NLC).

For more information, go to the Northern Land Council website.

As part of the threatened, endangered and protected species strategy, the use of commercial gill netting gear and techniques is not allowed in:

• Coopers creek
• East Alligator river.

This area is an important habitat, and is closed to commercial fishing to lessen impacts on species like:

• River sharks
• Sawfish.

Commercial barramundi fishers may not fish or anchor within the Dugong Protection Area in the south-western Gulf of Carpentaria.

To find out more about the inland boundaries and closure lines, read the Barramundi Fishery Management Plan 1998.

Temporary limits

The NT Government has set temporary effort limits for commercial fishers for the 2024 season in:

• Anson Bay
• Moyle River
• Roper River.

NT Fisheries will closely monitor fishing activities in these areas. To find out more, read the fact sheet PDF (551.0 KB).

Fishing method

Commercial operators fish over tidal mud flats and inside a restricted number of rivers using monofilament gill nets.

Nets are set and retrieved from dinghies and fish are processed onboard motherships.

Each licence is allowed a maximum of 1000m of gill net and spare net may be stored on board vessels.

The maximum gill-net mesh size is 180mm or 7 inches within the fishery.

Catch

Barramundi and king threadfin are the primary species taken in the barramundi fishery.

Barramundi are generally large enough at three years of age to be caught in a 150mm gill net, and fishers target barramundi that are usually three to eight years old.

A number of byproduct species are also taken which commonly include black jewfish, blacktip shark, blue threadfin and queenfish.

Vessel limits restrict the take of golden snapper, black jewfish and shark.