Is spearfishing legal in Thailand? The actual rules.

Yes, spearfishing is legal in Thailand. No, that does not mean you can spearfish anywhere you want. The rules are mostly about where, not whether. Here is the real map, cleaned up from the half-right answers you see in Facebook groups.

The short version

• Spearfishing on breath-hold is legal in Thai coastal waters outside of protected areas.
• Marine parks are closed to spearfishing. Full stop. No exceptions for foreigners, tourists, or “only reef fish.”
• Scuba-assisted spearfishing is prohibited nationwide. If you are on tanks, you cannot carry a loaded gun.
• Seasonal closures apply to some parks during monsoon (usually mid-May to mid-October on the Andaman, variable on the Gulf side).
• Some commercial species are protected or have size limits. Responsibility is on you to know.

Enforcement is uneven. That does not mean the risk is zero. More on that later.

The legal framework

Three main pieces of Thai law cover spearfishing:

1. National Parks Act B.E. 2562 (2019). Governs all national parks, including marine parks. Makes it illegal to hunt, fish, collect, or remove any natural resource from park waters without specific permits. Permits for spearfishing do not exist.
2. Fisheries Act B.E. 2558 (2015). Governs commercial and recreational fishing outside parks. Breath-hold spearfishing is classified as a non-commercial recreational method and is generally allowed. Scuba-assisted spearfishing is prohibited under this act.
3. Provincial and local ordinances. Some provinces layer additional rules, particularly around tourist-heavy reefs and anchorages. These are rarely well-documented in English.

For the official overview and the marine park map I keep updated, see the legality and marine parks page.

Marine parks you absolutely cannot spearfish in

This list is not exhaustive. It is the ones I get asked about constantly and the ones with the highest enforcement visibility.

Andaman coast

• Mu Ko Similan National Park. Closed to spearfishing year round. Also closed to all tourism mid-May through mid-October.
• Mu Ko Surin National Park. Same rules.
• Hat Chao Mai and Mu Ko Phetra. Closed.
• Mu Ko Phi Phi / Hat Noppharat Thara. Closed. The entire Phi Phi island cluster is inside the park boundary.
• Mu Ko Lanta. Closed.
• Ao Phang Nga. Closed.
• Sirinat (Phuket). Closed.

Gulf of Thailand

• Mu Ko Ang Thong. Closed. This is the archipelago west of Koh Samui. Locals will tell you this. Listen.
• Mu Ko Chang. Closed. Both the main island cluster and Mu Ko Chumphon.
• Khao Sam Roi Yot. Closed coastal park.
• Hat Khanom Mu Ko Thale Tai. Closed.

The rule of thumb: if it is a national park, it is closed. If you are not sure whether a specific reef or island is inside a park boundary, check before you drop a gun in the water. I keep a current map on the legality page, and the DNP website publishes park boundaries too.

Where you CAN spearfish on each coast

Andaman

Outside the listed parks, the Andaman coast has legal water around much of Phuket (non-park zones), parts of Phang Nga province shoreline, parts of Krabi outside Phi Phi boundaries, and much of Satun and Trang coastal areas outside Mu Ko Phetra and Hat Chao Mai boundaries.

Reality check: the Andaman is disproportionately park-covered. The good reefs people want to dive are often the ones inside park boundaries, because that is exactly why those reefs got protected status. I cover the Phuket and Similan-adjacent reality in this post on spearfishing the Andaman.

Gulf

Outside the listed parks, most of the Gulf coast is open to spearfishing. Koh Samui waters east and south of the island are legal (Ang Thong is to the west and off-limits). Koh Phangan outside park zones, much of Koh Tao outside marine reserves, and most of the Chumphon mainland coast. I cover Samui in detail in this local guide.

Scuba prohibition, explained

Thai law is unambiguous on this one: no spearfishing while on scuba. It does not matter whether you are 5 metres deep or 30. It does not matter if you are only “along for the dive” with a pole spear in your hand. If you are on tanks and carrying any implement capable of taking fish, you are in violation of the Fisheries Act.

This one gets enforced. Dive boat operators know the rule and will refuse to take spearos with tanks. If you want to spear, you are on breath-hold. That is the whole sport in Thailand.

Seasonal closures

Most Andaman marine parks close to all tourism, not just spearfishing, from roughly May 16 through October 15 each year. Exact dates shift a bit season to season. Monsoon season makes bluewater impractical anyway during those months, but it is worth knowing that even park-adjacent transit routes can be affected during closures.

The Gulf side does not have the same coordinated tourism closures, but monsoon conditions mid-October through December make east-side Samui and Koh Tao water dives difficult. You can still dive the west and south of Samui during that period.

Species guidance

Thailand does not publish a clean English-language “do not shoot” list for recreational spearfishing the way Australia or South Africa does. General rules that apply:

• No sharks. Whale shark, leopard shark, and most reef sharks are protected under CITES and Thai conservation law.
• No turtles, marine mammals, or rays with protected status. Obvious but worth stating.
• No coral reef collection or damage. Accidentally damaging coral with a shaft is not prosecuted, but deliberately wedging into coral to retrieve fish, or breaking bommies, is.
• Responsible-sized takes only. No juveniles. No breeding-aggregation targets. This is on you.

A clean responsible-species default for Thailand: trevally, Spanish mackerel, wahoo, snapper (legal-size), grouper (legal-size, outside breeding season), barracuda, and various reef fish appropriate to the water. What you want to avoid: parrotfish (ecologically important for reef health), bumphead wrasse, large humphead wrasse, anything in an aggregation.

What enforcement actually looks like

Enforcement in Thai marine parks is real. Park rangers patrol by boat. They board dive boats. They check for spearguns and catch. Penalties range from fines (tens of thousands of baht) to gear confiscation to, in repeat or egregious cases, prosecution under the National Parks Act.

Outside parks, enforcement of recreational spearfishing is very light. The fisheries authorities focus on commercial trawlers, not the local spearo with a Snapper 90. That is not license to be stupid. If you are visibly speargunning at a tourist beach in peak season, expect someone to complain. If you are respectful, low-profile, and a long way from crowds, you are fine.

The single most common enforcement trigger: somebody on a dive boat or tour boat calls a ranger because they saw a speargun in the water. Keep it discreet. Do not spear near tourist beaches. Do not spear near anchored dive boats.

Responsible spearfishing in Thailand

A few things I ask every customer to do:

• Know where park boundaries are on the chart plotter before you drop in.
• Take what you can eat that day, not what you can carry home.
• No juveniles. If you are not sure the fish is legal-size, let it go.
• Do not spear near other divers, swimmers, or tourist boats, even outside parks.
• Pick up your brass, your line, your trash.
• Share the spots that deserve sharing, protect the ones that do not.

This sport exists in Thailand because Thai authorities tolerate it as a low-impact recreational activity. Keep it that way.

If you are unsure

Bring a chart. Know the parks. When in doubt, move to water that is unambiguously outside park boundaries. The map on the legality page is the one I tell people to use, and I update it when boundaries change.

For guided trips where the legality question is already handled (I only run trips in legal water), see the trips page.

Questions on a specific reef, park boundary, or species? WhatsApp me directly. +66 (0) 80 535 2528. I would rather answer a question before the dive than read about it after.