OUPV (Six-Pack) and Master credential paths for charter boats, tour boats, and passenger-for-hire operators in New Mexico.
It isn't a state license — it's the same federal USCG Merchant Mariner Credential with an OUPV or Master endorsement, used nationwide.
New Mexico is landlocked; large-reservoir guide services may pursue OUPV Inland.
The nearest USCG Regional Examination Center is Long Beach, CA / St. Louis, MO. Compare centers and appointment rules in the USCG REC locations guide.
Major New Mexico charter hubs
New Mexico is split between two RECs — Long Beach and St. Louis — and that split is the most informative thing on this page, because it says out loud what the credential system assumes: the file follows the water the service was earned on, not the address on it. In state, Elephant Butte Reservoir is on the Rio Grande and Navajo Lake on the San Juan, two systems that reach the Gulf of Mexico and the Colorado respectively and neither of which is the Mississippi, so 33 CFR 83.03(n) Western Rivers does not touch them. No Part 80 line is drawn in New Mexico either, leaving plain Inland Rules under 83.03(q) on whatever here is navigable water of the United States — a threshold question in its own right on a reservoir, and one for the cognizant Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection rather than for a guide service's own reading.
33 CFR Part 80 draws no demarcation line in New Mexico. Its 106 sections cover the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the Pacific islands and Alaska; a state with no coast has no section, which is itself the answer.
This decides which rulebook you steer by, not where your credential may operate: the route limit is the 46 CFR Part 7 Boundary Line, and the two lines are not drawn in the same place. How the two lines differ · International Rules · Inland Rules
33 CFR Part 80 and the Part 83 definitions above read from eCFR on 12 Aug 2026. Any specific water is a determination for the cognizant Coast Guard Officer in Charge, Marine Inspection.
Not sure the trip needs a credential at all? The captain's-license trigger guide.
Document your sea service
Pass the medical & drug test
CG-719K and CG-719P — medical certificate guide.
Get a TWIC + CPR / First Aid
Submit your application to the NMC
Pass the exam at REC Long Beach, CA
Or an approved course provider — what it covers and the score you need.
There is no New Mexico captain's license to get — you earn a federal USCG credential, in the five steps set out above, and sit the exam at REC Long Beach, CA / St. Louis, MO.
The same — a federal Merchant Mariner Credential endorsement, valid in every state. New Mexico licenses the business, the guide and local fishing separately.
The minimum age is federal, not set by New Mexico: 18 for OUPV, 19 for most Master endorsements, 21 for higher-tonnage and ocean routes (46 CFR 11.201(e)).
At REC Long Beach, CA / St. Louis, MO once the NMC approves the application, or through an approved course provider that administers the exam itself.
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