You will need this licence if you intend to commercially harvest, transport, hold and sell pearl oysters in the Northern Territory.
The NT pearling industry is managed under a unit quota system and uses two types of licences - a pearl oyster fishery licence (fishing licence) and a pearl oyster culture (hatchery) licence.
The fishery is made up of 120 fishery units and the culture industry has 300 hatchery units. Each unit is equal to 1150 oysters. This means 483,000 new oysters can be seeded each year.
A pearl farmer must hold both types of licences and have at least five fishing units and 15 hatchery units to maintain their licences. Units may be traded - permanently or temporarily - between licence holders.
