Top End traditional owner Don Wilton has proudly held up his catch of Bluetail Mullet in the docks of Darwin's fish markets, shipped all the way from Maningrida.

It is the first delivery in what is hoped to be an ongoing partnership between the traditional owners of Top End communities and the Northern Territory seafood industry, and even beyond to the southern states.

Mr Wilton, who has fished all his life, has been one of the first to acquire an Aboriginal Coastal Fishing Licence, allowing him to fish and sell commercially.

He employs 13 fisherman and uses net fishing techniques on the shores of Nardilmuk, 25 kilometres from Maningrida.

Fishing permit-holder Stuart Ankin (centre) at Maningrida pulling in fish. ( Supplied: Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation )

"Every season they change, different species that comes in: mullets and queenies and blue salmon and trevally and sometimes the herrings fish, all sorts of species that live in the ocean," Mr Wilton said.

"In my country there's too many crayfish, which is the lobsters.

"So I was told by NT fisheries: 'yeah you can spear them, just chuck it in the esky and send to Ziko [Illich, the fish market director] and the lobsters are worth a lot of money."

Flat-tail stingray will also be on the menu after the Darwin fish markets expressed interest.

Up to 40 fisherman may be hired

Mr Wilton trained his 13 staff who have all now been certified.

The first 300kg shipment of bluetail mullet from Maningrida at the Darwin Fish Markets. ( ABC News: Lucy Marks )

And once the other two permit-holders, Stuart Ankin and Jimmy Olsen, begin their operations as the wet season subsides, up 30 to 40 locals will be hired.

After selling locally to Maningrida, Ramingining and Oenpelli and now Darwin, Mr Wilton has his sights set on the big time.

"I'm real happy we've got this licence and we'll be selling later on down south, maybe Sydney or Melbourne," he said.

Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation is supporting Mr Wilton's micro-enterprise with logistics and applying for grants to buy things like refrigeration, but the long-term plan is for the business to self-sustainable.

As the first person to be operating a fishing micro-enterprise and selling to Darwin, 65-year-old Mr Wilton said he wanted his family to take over the business one day.

Don Wilton says lobster are in abundance and he will start supplying the shellfish to Darwin soon. ( Supplied: Bawinanga Aboriginal Corporation )

"Hopefully this future will be handed over to my sons and daughter," he said.

"If I get old, for instance 78, I'll be sitting down with the walking stick and my daughter or my sons will be replacing me."

Positive outlook for future of Aboriginal micro-enterprises

The operation is an example of how partnerships between government, communities and businesses can support remote economic development in Aboriginal communities, Matt Osborne from NT Fisheries said.

"These communities are quite small, so they're quite limited to what they can catch and what they can sell, and they don't want to fish for the sake of catching fish and having it go to waste," he said.

Mr Osborne said the changes to the Aboriginal Coastal Licence scheme allowing commercial fishing changed in 2015, partly due to the Blue Mud Bay high court decision, which allowed Aboriginal people to have more control over the waters on their land.

"What that's done is open up the opportunity that people can use that licence, they can sell it [the fish] to anyone into the shops, any regions, they've freed [the system] up so its a bit more commercially viable," he said.