About us

The Protected Zone Joint Authority (PZJA) is responsible for management of commercial and traditional fishing in the Australian area of the Torres Strait Protected Zone (TSPZ) and designated adjacent Torres Strait waters.

Torres Strait is located between the tip of Cape York and Papua New Guinea.

It is a shallow tropical marine environment, with significant seagrass meadows in the central and western parts, and extensive coral reefs forming the northern limit of the Great Barrier Reef in the east.

Scattered through the Strait are over a hundred islands, of which only 18 are currently inhabited. Geographically the islands are divided into eastern, central, western, top-western and southern groups.

Page last updated 15 December, 2006