SpearfishingMap

United States Minor Outlying Islands · Spearfishing zone

Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (Johnston Atoll unit)

Prohibited zonenational wildlife refuge / marine national monument / military zone

What this zone is

Overview

How spearfishing is treated at Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument (Johnston Atoll unit).

Johnston Atoll, 716 nautical miles south-west of Honolulu, is one of the most isolated atolls in the world, with a shallow coral reef of roughly 32,000 acres and, per the Fish and Wildlife Service, a monument boundary that "is a complete 200 mile radius around Johnston Atoll". The atoll is a former military and chemical-weapons destruction site: Proclamation 8336 as amended by Proclamation 10918 provides that "The Secretary of Defense shall continue to manage Wake Island and Johnston Atoll as specified in Proclamation 8336", so access is controlled by the Department of Defense in addition to the refuge overlay. The Service states the refuge "is not open to the public and entry is only allowed through a Special Use Permit". Fishing is closed by 50 CFR 27.21 (no taking of animals on a refuge), by the absence of any listing in 50 CFR 32.7, and by 50 CFR 665.933(b) and 665.934(d), which prohibit non-commercial fishing in the monument and, unconditionally, within 12 nautical miles of emergent land unless the Fish and Wildlife Service authorises it. Spearfishing is prohibited.

On the coast

Location

Approximate reference point for this zone. See the full picture on the interactive map.

16.7005°N, 169.5630°W

View on the map

Source

This zone is documented in the official source below.

Before you dive

License for United States Minor Outlying Islands

Whether you need a license to spearfish here, and how to get one.

License requiredvia U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office

Special Use Permits are issued by the refuge manager of the relevant refuge complex (Pacific Reefs National Wildlife Refuge Complex for the Pacific units; Caribbean Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex, based at Cabo Rojo, for Navassa). Monument fishing permits are applied for through NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Regional Office as described in 50 CFR 665.13. In practice these permits are issued for research, management and (at Palmyra) catch-and-release bone-fishing, not for spearfishing.

Get your license

Opens the official portal · ecfr.gov

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