Casa Estrella / AcuarioBayahíbe
borderlineswell on the quarter today
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Reef 12–14 m — inside/edge of Cotubanamá, no-take. Info.
Google MapsBayahíbe spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras
5.4
wave 0.4 m
visibility5m
Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
Sources: IPMA · NDBC · Copernicus — high confidence · data 14:57
Sources & confidence
- Sources
- IPMA · NDBC buoys · Copernicus Marine
- Method
- Model consensus, read per window
- Freshness
- Re-read every hour, per coast
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine
The verdict comes from seven water factors and hard safety gates — not ten tabs. Go or stay.
How we score the water
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.
- Swell & wave memory
- Height, period and direction of the swell, plus the wake of recent storms — an old storm still stirs the water, and the engine remembers.
- Wind & gusts
- Speed and gusts, hour by hour — wind speed and an onshore push chop the surface and cut visibility.
- Tide phase
- Timing and range of the tide, calibrated per coast — big spring tides pull the verdict toward caution.
- Water temperature
- Sea-surface temperature — sharply cold water vetoes a green verdict.
- Currents & outflow
- Direction and drift of the current — it pushes you, and it drags turbid coastal water across where you dive.
- Rain runoff & air clarity
- Rain muddies the water inshore through land runoff, while fog and haze cut visibility at the surface.
- Coast shape & exposure
- How the coast faces the swell — a sheltered cove keeps the water clean; an exposed, head-on point takes a penalty.
Safety gates
- Thunderstorm forecast — an instant red, no exceptions.
- An official warning (MeteoAlarm / IPMA) — yellow, or red for the higher ranks.
- Missing input data — a would-be green is capped to yellow rather than overstated.
- Strong disagreement between forecast models — a green day is pulled back to yellow.
- Night hours — forced red; the window is closed after dark.
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
Entry points with coordinates
Seabed relief — promising ground
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
calmupdated 14:57
Bayahíbe — solo, off the rocks
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · strong wind 15 km/h, gusts 39 — caution
wave 0.4 mwind 15, gusts 39 km/hvisibility ~7 mwindow 12:00–21:00
today, best window 15:00–18:00
fish · Visibility 7 m · Water 30.1°C
confidence low · verdict for the selected day
Whole week — tap a day. is driving swell right now.
Solo risk: carry a float · tell someone your plan and exit time · doubt = don't go. A model-based planner; the call is made on site.
Selected day
Windows, hours
and the day's trends.
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.
Wednesday · today2026-07-22
06:09–19:13 · first quarter
▼ 09:00▲ 19:00 · 0.2 m
Hours (06→20)
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide0.43 m
Wave0.52 m
Wind8 km/h
Water30 °C
fish activity: moonset 00:24 · moderate · moon underfoot 07:00 · high · moonrise 13:44 · moderate · moon overhead 19:20 · high
Conditions window12:00–15:00
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site fish
Hs 0.36 mperiod 4.8 swind 17→39surge 0.3viz 5 m
0.36 mup to ~0.72 · 136° at an angle
4.8 sswell moderate
17→39gusts 39 km/h
0.3weak surge
0.17m/s
5 mrecent swell
30°C5 mm + hood
▲19:00tide rising
Atmosphere5 kmprecip 1.3 mm
moderatemoonrise
- strong wind 17 km/h, gusts 39 — caution
- visibility ~5 m
confidence lowday
The water column
Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.
What it is
A marine instrument,
go / no-go for solo hunting.
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: 1152 spots across 189 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsThe seabed
Relief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.
On the rock
The forecast is the plan.
The call is on the rock.
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.
Entry points
Where to get in
off the rocks.
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 map
St. George (pecio)Bayahíbe
closedswell on the quarter today
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
73 m freighter, 15→40 m — INSIDE Cotubanamá National Park, no-take. Dive/info only (advanced).
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.
Surfacing
Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
Live cameras, map & reference
Cameras · live
Look at the water
right now.
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».
Reference
What's in season,
what the law says.
In season now
- snapperReef snapper on the drop; work the edge on the current, best at dusk/night. Warm months. DO rule sets no finfish minimum size.
- crevalle jackCrevalle jack on the reef edge on the current, by day — quick, a strong fighter.
- blue runnerSchooling blue runner over reef & current; quick daytime shot.
- great barracuda⚠️ Big barracuda/reef predators in the Caribbean — ciguatera risk. Eat small ones, avoid big reef fish.
- yellowtail snapperSmall midwater snapper over the reef; comes up on a drift, best at dusk. DO rule sets no finfish minimum size.
- lionfishInvasive — culling is ENCOURAGED year-round (MTIASIC/WECAFC). Venomous spines — careful; flesh edible.
off season: grouper (Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr)
Not a target — don't shoot
- Nassau grouper🚫 no-take🚫 Nassau grouper — protected (critically endangered): do not take, release. Slow-growing, forms spawning aggregations.
Law
- • (Law 307-04) issues a fisher licence aimed at commercial operators; tourists are usually covered by the charter/operator permit. Recreational shore spearfishing sits in a grey area — rules are loosely applied; confirm with your operator/.
- ✓Banned for recreational: dynamite and nets. Lobster closed 1 Mar–30 Jun; queen conch (lambí) closed 1 Jul–31 Oct — neither is a speargun target.
- ✓ are no-fishing: Parque Nacional Cotubanamá (ex-del Este; Saona/Catalina/wrecks near Bayahíbe) and the reserve status cited for Sosúa bay.
- ⛔ 🚫 Lobster may NOT be speared (Art. 51) — traps only. Lobster closed 1 Mar–30 Jun; conch (lambí) 1 Jul–31 Oct. Shells/corals can't be exported.
- ⛔ 🚫 Marine mammals, turtles, corals, sharks and rays — no-take ( Arts. 46-47). Inside the national parks (La Caleta, Cotubanamá, Montecristi, Jaragua) hunting is banned.
Rules change and are loosely applied. Before heading out, check with CODOPESCA (Law 307-04) and your charter/operator; marine national parks are no-fishing.
Safety protocol
- Sets: watch the wave trains ≥15 min before entering; Hmax ≈ 2×Hs, the wash can run 50 m past the foam line. A lull >10 min with period >12 s = a big set «overdue», do NOT enter; enter right after a full set passes and re-check at minute 30.
- Exit FIRST: find your exit AND a backup before entering. On a rocky/boulder shore a 0.5 m rise in swell can make the exit impossible — getting pinned/unable to climb out is the main killer.
- Headland rip: prominent points often have a permanent topographic rip regardless of the model — locate it, enter/exit on the windward side, never swim against it.
- Cold: wetsuit per the SST chip; the first shiver = a metabolic surge and a drop in breath-hold → get out at the first steady shiver. Cap the session at 45–60 min below 15 °C.
- Solo discipline: buoy up; tell someone the spot and exit time; conservative breath-hold (never push it in cold/murky/surfy water); visibility <3 m — don't enter.
- Afternoon wind: on many coasts the wind builds from midday — plan to be out of the water by midday; the chop builds — get out.
- UV 11:00–15:00 (UVI ≥6): sunscreen and cover up on the surface interval.
- Solo is a fundamental risk (hypoxic blackout with no buddy). Any doubt = No-go.
Spearfishing in Bayahíbe: spots, seasons and rules
Bayahíbe is the Dominican city where the answer should come first: do not plan to spear inside Cotubanamá. The surrounding Saona and Catalina area, the St. George and Atlantic Princess wreck context, and nearby reefs are treated as no-take within the national park and the Arrecifes del Sureste marine sanctuary. If an operator offers spearfishing, the first questions are the exact outside-the-boundary site, CODOPESCA coverage and apnea-only practice. Without those answers, Bayahíbe is a dive town, not a hunting base.
TL;DR
- Bayahíbe is mainly a boundary problem: Saona, Catalina, St. George and Atlantic Princess sit in the Cotubanamá no-take context.
- Do not treat the famous wreck and reef dives as spearfishing spots. They are dive references only.
- A spearfishing plan only starts outside the park and marine-sanctuary limits, with the operator confirming coverage and location.
- Clean water and sargassum-free beaches help visibility, but they do not change the no-fishing rule inside the park.
Best spearfishing spots in Bayahíbe
The two named Bayahíbe sites are included to prevent a common mistake. They are known dive sites, not places to load a speargun. The responsible approach is to avoid inventing outside-park spots and require the operator to identify a legal area before the trip.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| St. George (pecio) | Freighter wreck | 15 to 40 m | Advanced scuba dive, no spearing | Dive-boat access | Inside Cotubanamá National Park. Use it as dive information only, not as a spearfishing mark. |
| Casa Estrella / Acuario | Shallow reef | 12 to 14 m | Dive or snorkel, no spearing | Local boat | Inside or on the edge of Cotubanamá. A spearfishing operator must move the plan outside protected limits. |
Spearfishing Bayahíbe conditions today
Bayahíbe is more sheltered than Barahona or the north coast, with the problem sector coming from southeast through west-southwest. That shelter can make the bay look calm, but it does not open the park to spearguns. Bayahíbe and Cadaqués cameras are useful for water colour, surface movement and sargassum checks. The Bayahíbe coast is described as 97 to 99 percent sargassum-free. For spearfishing, the first filter remains the boundary, not the prettiness of the water.
Underwater visibility Bayahíbe today
Visibility can be good because the coast is sheltered and the sargassum note is favourable. That is why the town works so well for diving. It does not change the rule. St. George can be clear and still be no-take. Casa Estrella can be calm and still sit inside or on the edge of the protected area. If the operator cannot show an outside-park site, do not load the gun.
What fish can you spear in Bayahíbe?
Outside closed areas, the Dominican target list includes snapper, grouper, crevalle jack, blue runner, yellowtail snapper and lionfish. Lionfish is invasive and year-round culling is encouraged, with careful handling of spines. Nassau grouper is protected. Large barracuda and other reef predators carry ciguatera risk. In Bayahíbe, the list only matters outside Cotubanamá; inside the park the answer is no.
Parque Nacional Cotubanamá (ex-del Este) spearfishing allowed
No inside the park. The Bayahíbe warning places Saona, Catalina, St. George and Atlantic Princess in the Cotubanamá no-take context inside the Arrecifes del Sureste marine sanctuary. A trip can only be discussed outside the boundaries, with a guide who knows the line and confirms coverage. Bayahíbe also flags apnea: hookah and night hunting are banned. Lobster and queen conch are not speargun targets and have closed seasons.
Spearfishing for beginners Bayahíbe
Bayahíbe can look beginner-friendly because the water is calm and the tourism logistics are easy. That is the trap. The famous sites are park dives. A beginner should ask for an explicitly outside-protected-area trip, with a float, guide and rules explained before leaving the dock. If the plan starts with St. George or Acuario as a hunting mark, stop there.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Bayahíbe?
Only outside Cotubanamá and sanctuary limits, with the operator confirming the exact site. St. George and Casa Estrella / Acuario are not hunting spots.
What is the underwater visibility in Bayahíbe today?
Cameras help with water colour and sargassum. The area can be clean, but visibility does not allow spearing inside the park.
What fish can you spear in Bayahíbe?
Outside closed areas: snapper, grouper, jacks, blue runner, yellowtail snapper and lionfish. Inside Cotubanamá, do not spear.
Can you spearfish in Parque Nacional Cotubanamá (ex-del Este)?
No. Treat Cotubanamá, Saona, Catalina and nearby wreck areas as no-take for spearfishing.
When is the best season to spearfish in Bayahíbe?
The boundary matters before the season. Confirm an outside-park site, then check sea state, sargassum and current.
Is spearfishing legal in the Dominican Republic?
CODOPESCA provides the framework, but recreational shore spearfishing is grey and loosely applied. Marine parks are no-fishing.
Do you need a CODOPESCA licence to spearfish?
Visitors should confirm charter or operator coverage before the trip. Tourist boats alone are not enough.
Is access usually through a charter or guide?
Yes. In Bayahíbe, the guide is needed for park boundaries, coverage and site choice outside closed water.
Sources
Nearby towns
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