The NLC has automatically granted access to recreational fishers to the tidal waters in some areas of the Territory – marked in yellow on maps – via a registration process, and fishos once registered, have access until December 31, 2022.

On the Finniss River coastal area map, the Northern Land Council states it is conducting more negotiation on the Blue Mud Bay access areas and would update the map as required, subject to the consent of Aboriginal landholders.

The river mouth is identified on the NLC website as being part of a stretch of coastland which runs from the Finniss River down to near Channel Point near the Peron islands where fishing is banned under Aboriginal inter-tidal waters access rules developed after the Blue Mud Bay decision.

Fishing is also banned around the circumference of the Peron islands.

The width of the no fishing band along the coast is not specified but industry sources have told the NT Independent it is several hundred metres.

The map on the NLC website has now been made clearer with a caption stating a registration is not required for fishing on the right hand or northern bank of the Finniss River, or in a section of river challenge downstream of where the river is completely closed for fishing.

Fishing is also banned in the Little Finniss River.

NLC intertidal waters access map – Finniss coast area.

In January the NT Government ruled that a $10,000 barramundi caught as part of the Million Dollar Fish competition in the restricted fishing area by a man without the proper permits was “illegitimate”, but refused to explain what it intended to do about it.

The NT Independent first revealed that NT Major Events was investigating the legality of the catch that was part of the Million Dollar Fish competition In December after the fish was caught on the Little Finniss River.

Questions were raised when the corporation limited who could comment on its Facebook post announcing the catch in December, after people raised concerns that the fish was illegally caught.

But the corporation failed to mention what sort of penalty, if any, the man who caught the fish would now face or what happens to the prize money.