Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding.
Sources & confidence
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine · How it works →
The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.
Our own model
Our own forecast engine — not a third-party widget. It weighs these water factors into one go-or-stay verdict for this coast; the 0–10 dial is that verdict, read out as a number.
Safety gates
It all folds into a single 0–10 score and one verdict: go or stay.
A forecast, not a guarantee — the sea has the last word.
Where to get in, where to hunt
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Avalon (Catalina Island), we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
Every covered town has its own live forecast, cameras and entry points. Choose where you're diving.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
The day is picked above, in the hero. Here are that day's windows, the hour-by-hour map and the trends. Tap a window to break down the conditions.
Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.
spearo.app folds wind, wave, swell period, visibility, tides, water temperature and risk into a single verdict — go to the spot or not. It computes 7 days ahead from open marine models (Open-Meteo, IPMA), with no sign-up and no accounts. Built for solo spearfishing off the rocks, where any mistake costs dearly.
Now live: 1391 spots across 205 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsRelief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.
The models set the window. Whether you go in is read only at the water: count the sets, watch the surge on the entry. If in doubt, you don't get in.
Scouted entries, coloured by today. The colour is the sea state at the spot, not a guarantee: the wash and a slippery entry you judge on site.
Open the seafloor mapWARNING: Avalon's underwater park — a clear kelp-and-rock cove, 3–18 m, but inside the Casino Point SMCA, which is no-take. Spearing is banned; diving and photography only. The clearest water on Catalina.
Google MapsCameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
Check the cam BEFORE you leave. Foam, brown/green murk, or waves washing the entry rocks = No-go. At night/in fog the cam is useless — treat it as «unknown», NOT «green».
Spainbuoy San Pedro, CA: 23.5° · wave 0.7 m/13 s · 47 min ago
Offshore seamount about 1.5 nm off Catalina's back side, its top at roughly 20 m and falling past 45 m into blue water. Yellowtail and white seabass hold over the pinnacle; this is an SMCA where only pelagic finfish and white seabass may be speared, and the purple hydrocoral is protected.
Boulder labyrinth and outer pinnacles just southeast of Long Point on Catalina's front side, 5-26 m, almost always calm with 12 m visibility. Calico bass on the reef and yellowtail passing the outer pinnacles; boat only, and the Long Point SMR to the northwest is no-take.
Google MapsWARNING: a boulder field dropping to 30 m with a giant sea bass aggregation from July to October — the species is no-take statewide, and the site itself lies inside the no-take Long Point SMR. Viewing dives only.
Google MapsWARNING: a calm shallow cove, 2–8 m, packed with tame fish — and inside the Lover's Cove SMCA, where spearfishing is prohibited. It is a tourist fish-feeding area: viewing only. Hunting starts outside Avalon Bay.
Google MapsSOLO is the biggest risk: underwater you can black out from lack of oxygen silently and fatally, with no one around. Solo is never truly «safe». Below are the best weather windows; carry a buoy, tell someone your plan and exit time, and any doubt — don't go.
US spearfishing law is state-by-state. License, spearable species, powerhead rules and distances vary; federal sanctuaries (Gray's Reef, the Keys, Flower Garden Banks) ban spearfishing. Always confirm with the state agency and local ordinances.
Spearfishing Avalon should start with the map, not the gun. The famous clear water around Casino Point, Lover's Cove and Italian Gardens sits inside protected marine zones, with hard no-take status at Casino Point and Long Point. That makes Avalon a viewing and training base, while huntable Catalina water is a separate plan toward legal areas outside the MPA cluster. When boundaries are approximate or confusing, fail closed. A California sport fishing license covers legal spearfishing, but MPAs, fully protected fish and the abalone closure decide where and what you can take.
The table is intentionally not a list of huntable spots. It shows the classic Avalon water that divers ask about first, and why those places should be treated as closed to spearfishing unless the managing authority says otherwise.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Casino Point / Avalon Underwater Park | Sheltered kelp and reef cove inside Casino Point SMCA | Clear shallow-to-moderate cove; exact depth not used for hunting | Viewing only | Shore access for diving, not for spearfishing | The local zone hit is hard no-take. Use it for visibility checks, training and fish watching only. |
| Lover's Cove | Calm shallow reef cove inside Lover's Cove SMCA | Shallow reef cove | Viewing only | Shore-side cove access, no hunting | Spearfishing is banned. Do not treat the calm water as permission to hunt. |
| Italian Gardens | Boulder field inside Long Point SMR | Boulder field to 30 m | Viewing only | Boat-supported Catalina site | Known for a giant sea bass aggregation from July to October. It is inside Long Point SMR, so no take. |
No for practical planning. Casino Point is a no-take SMCA hit, Lover's Cove is protected and listed as no spearfishing, and Italian Gardens is inside Long Point SMR. Those are exactly the places where clear water can tempt a bad decision. Check the CDFW MPA map, and if the line is not obvious from the water, stay out of hunting mode.
For hunting, plan away from Avalon toward Two Harbors and other legal Catalina water. That does not mean every cove between the two towns is open. Build the plan from the official MPA map, avoid any State Marine Reserve, check the specific State Marine Conservation Area rules, and keep a GPS boundary loaded before you gear up.
In legal California water, the regional list includes white seabass, California yellowtail, California sheephead, kelp and sand bass, California halibut, rockfish and lingcod. The hard exclusions matter just as much: giant sea bass, garibaldi and salmon are no-take, red abalone is closed until April 1, 2036, and lobster is hand-take only.
It can be a base, but not because the town coves are open. The classic Avalon sites are protected, so legal hunting requires a separate Catalina plan outside the MPA cluster.
No. Casino Point SMCA is a hard no-take zone, so it is viewing only.
No. Italian Gardens is inside Long Point State Marine Reserve, which is no-take.
Use the Avalon Harbor and underwater camera feeds for water color and surge clues, then compare them with the nearby NOAA buoy for swell context.
Giant sea bass and garibaldi are fully protected, salmon are not a spear target, and red abalone remains closed.
transparency ~21 m · satellite, yesterdaysatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore
Portugal
