Deep-sea fishing in Dubai for a team, and the licence

If your team goes deep-sea fishing in Dubai on an organised charter, the licence question is the operator’s to answer, and you should get the answer in writing; on our own fishing day the licences are included. The Dubai Municipality recreational licence is for residents who fish on their own account. For the company day itself, a private three-boat competition runs AED 950 per person for 12 to 19 people, AED 850 for 20 to 29 and AED 780 for 30 to 40, excluding 5% VAT.

The rest of this guide covers who needs what paperwork, what the competition format adds, and the two things that decide whether the day happens at all: the season and the sea.

Who needs a fishing licence in Dubai

Most of the searches about fishing in Dubai are really about the licence, so it is worth being precise about what the reporting says and what it does not.

According to Khaleej Times and Gulf News guides published in September 2024, Dubai Municipality issues a recreational fishing licence that is free, valid for one year and renewable, applied for online through the municipality’s services hub with UAE Pass, or through the Dubai Now app. Khaleej Times reported that only Dubai residents are eligible, that under-18s do not need one, and that the licence service is suspended from June to October each year. Those were the latest guides we could find at the time of writing (November 2026), so check the municipality’s own service page before relying on any of it.

What neither guide addresses directly is the one question a company group cares about: whether a passenger on a commercial charter needs a licence of their own. We could not find an official answer, so we will not invent one. The safe course is to ask the charter operator to confirm in writing, before you pay, that licences for everyone on board are covered.

What a fishing competition adds to a fishing trip

A shared public fishing trip in Dubai puts you on one boat with strangers for a few hours, and it costs less per head. It is a perfectly good morning out. It is not a company event, because nothing about it involves the group doing anything together beyond being on the same boat.

Our Open Water day splits the group across three private 42-foot charters, up to ten anglers each, and turns the morning into a competition. Teams are assigned to boats by lot at the harbour rather than by department, so the finance team does not end up fishing together. Each boat gets scorecards, the crews call the standings between hulls by radio once the boats reposition mid-morning, and at 11:30 every catch is weighed at the dock and written up on a board. Prizes go to the heaviest fish, the most species, and the boat that caught nothing, which is usually the loudest table at lunch.

That lunch is the part people remember. Whatever came in is cooked at the harbour restaurant, with a full alternative menu for anyone who does not eat fish, and the conversation is about the morning rather than about work. Nobody can guarantee a catch, and we do not, but the format works even on a slow day because the scoring is relative.

The day, start to finish

The bus leaves your office at 05:30 with breakfast boxes and coffee on board. That start time is not arbitrary: both the fishing and the sea state are generally better before ten in the morning. At the harbour in Jumeirah or Dubai Marina there is a boat draw at 06:00, a safety, tackle and rules briefing at 06:15, and the boats leave at 06:30.

The first drift starts around 07:00, with the crew working each boat on rigging and technique for the people who have never held a rod. Lines come up at 11:00, the weigh-in is at 11:30, lunch is at 12:00 and prizes are at 13:15. You are back at your drop point around 14:15, which means the whole thing costs one morning rather than a full working day.

The group size runs from 12 to 40, and the day works best for sales teams and smaller leadership groups. If you are planning for a team at the smaller end of that range, our guide to team building for small teams explains why per-person costs behave differently below thirty people.

The season and the sea

Open Water runs from October to May. Summer on an open deck from early morning to midday is hard going, and it is also when the Dubai licence service is reported to pause.

The weather decides more than the calendar does. We postpone if the sea state is above 1.5 metres, sustained wind is above 20 knots, or there is a small-craft advisory. The call is made at 16:00 the day before from the marine forecast, and again at 05:00 by the skipper, and you hear by 17:00 the previous day when the forecast is clear, or by phone by 05:15 if it is not. A postponed day reschedules free within 90 days. If the sea turns once the boats are out, they work inshore and the day runs short, but the weigh-in, the lunch and the prizes all still happen.

Seasickness, and the rules on what you catch

Seasickness is the most likely way for someone’s day to go wrong, and it is much easier to prevent than to fix once the boat is offshore. Anyone who knows they are prone to it should take something before boarding rather than after the first drift, eat a light breakfast, and stay on deck with an eye on the horizon. Our coordinator carries seasickness medication but does not prescribe it, so the decision is each person’s own.

The catch rules are the crew’s job on the day, but it helps to know they exist. The Gulf News guide notes that sea turtles of all species, sizes and ages are protected under federal law, and Khaleej Times reported that some shark species may not be fished at all while others are closed from March to June. The Gulf News guide links to the environment ministry’s annual calendar of closed seasons, which changes, so if you fish on your own account, check the current year’s calendar before you go.

Fishing trip or dhow cruise?

These get confused because both happen on a boat. A fishing day is an activity: people stand at the rail with a rod for most of a morning and compete. A dhow or yacht charter is a venue: people sit, eat and talk while the boat does the work. If what your group wants is an evening on the water with dinner and no early start, our guide to corporate dhow cruises and yacht hire in Dubai covers that side, and our guide to UAE company trip ideas puts both against the rest of the country.

The practical next step: if you have a date between now and May that is at least 12 days away, book it and tell everyone the bus leaves at 05:30.