---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 7809"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "7809"
heading: "Exclusive economic zone notification"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/7809"
units:
  - "Chapter 97 — Convention on the Conservation and Management of High Seas Fishery Resources in the South Pacific"
---

# §7809. Exclusive economic zone notification


Masters of commercial [fishing vessels](/usc/16/7801.md?p=8) of countries [fishing](/usc/16/7801.md?p=7) under the management authority of the South Pacific Fisheries Convention that do not carry vessel monitoring systems capable of communicating with United States enforcement authorities shall, before or as soon as reasonably possible after, entering and transiting the [exclusive economic zone](/usc/16/7801.md?p=5) bounded by the [Convention Area](/usc/16/7801.md?p=3), ensure that all [fishing](/usc/16/7801.md?p=7) gear on board the vessel is stowed below deck or otherwise removed from the place it is normally used for [fishing](/usc/16/7801.md?p=7) activities and placed where it is not readily available for [fishing](/usc/16/7801.md?p=7) activities.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 114–327, title II, § 209, Dec. 16, 2016, 130 Stat. 1993.)