Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
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 Buffalo, 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.
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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 mapReef on the line of the vanished Bird Island at the entrance to the Black Rock Canal, under 1 m. Strong steady current from Lake Erie into the Niagara; visibility is often excellent, but the flow decides the dive.
Google MapsHistoric reef at the head of the Niagara, under 1 m at its crest and marked by the ruined Horseshoe Reef Light. Fierce outflow current runs across it; a boat-supported drift for experienced divers, never a swim-out.
Google MapsCameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
SpainRock reefs mid-channel between Buffalo Harbor and the Black Rock Canal, 1-2.5 m. Hard bottom, heavy current, commercial and recreational traffic overhead - drift with a live boat and a flag.
Google MapsNamed shoal 10 km south-west of Buffalo in about 8 m, out of the Niagara outflow and much calmer than the reefs at the river head. Hard bottom in open lake; boat only, and the eastern basin clouds up fast in a west wind.
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.
The answer for Buffalo is a clean red. New York ECL § 11-1301(1)(a) says no fish, other than migratory food fish of the sea in the marine and coastal district, shall be taken except by angling, and § 11-1301(1)(c) allows a spear or speargun only in that same marine and coastal district — which reaches the Atlantic within 3 miles and tidal waters to the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, and never the Great Lakes. Buffalo is a diving and wreck destination and a forecast node. The reefs at the head of the Niagara are drift dives; Seneca Shoal is the settled-water option.
Three of these four sit in the Niagara outflow, where current — not depth — sets the difficulty: they are 0.5-2.5 m deep and they are advanced dives. Seneca Shoal, out in the eastern basin at about 8 m, is the one you can plan on a normal day. Every row is a dive site: New York prohibits taking fish by spear or speargun in all of its fresh water.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horseshoe Reef | Reef | 0.5-2 m | Advanced drift · dive only, NY spear ban | Live boat, drift | Historic reef at the head of the Niagara, under 1 m at its crest and marked by the ruined Horseshoe Reef Light. Fierce outflow current runs across it; a boat-supported drift for experienced divers, never a swim-out. |
| Bird Island Reef | Reef | 0.5-2 m | Advanced drift · dive only, NY spear ban | Live boat, drift | Reef on the line of the vanished Bird Island at the entrance to the Black Rock Canal, under 1 m. Strong steady current from Lake Erie into the Niagara; visibility is often excellent, but the flow decides the dive. |
| Middle Reefs | Reef | 1-2.5 m | Advanced drift · dive only, NY spear ban | Live boat, drift | Rock reefs mid-channel between Buffalo Harbor and the Black Rock Canal, 1-2.5 m. Hard bottom, heavy current, and commercial and recreational traffic overhead — drift with a live boat and a flag. |
| Seneca Shoal | Reef | 6-8 m | Intermediate boat dive · dive only, NY spear ban | Boat | Named shoal 10 km south-west of Buffalo in about 8 m, out of the Niagara outflow and much calmer than the reefs at the river head. Hard bottom in open lake; the eastern basin clouds up fast in a west wind. |
No, and the statute says so in one line. ECL § 11-1301(1)(a): no fish, other than migratory food fish of the sea in the marine and coastal district, shall be taken except by angling. Subdivision (1)(c) then adds that, except as otherwise prohibited by law, fish may be taken by spear or speargun in the marine and coastal district only for recreational purposes, and that a speargun must be submerged when used. NYSDEC defines the marine and coastal district as the waters of the Atlantic Ocean within 3 miles of the coastline and all other tidal waters, including the Hudson River upstream to the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Lake Erie and the Niagara are not tidal and are not in that district, so the permission never reaches them. Not "varies", not "check locally" — banned.
First, DEC's list of methods of taking fish reads: angling, ice fishing, bowfishing, taking baitfish, fish traps, nets, dip nets. Spearing is not on it. Second, DEC defines the word anyway — spearfishing or spear means taking a fish with a hand-propelled single or multiple pronged pike, blade or harpoon, and it does not include the mechanically propelled device commonly called a spear gun — and then uses that definition exactly once, for frogs. Third, the rough-fish outlet New York does give you is a bow: carp may be taken by a longbow, recurve or compound, or by crossbow, in any number or size from 15 May to 30 September, and no other fish may be taken with a bow. One honest caveat: 6 NYCRR Part 10 could not be read during this research, so the claim that there is no exception anywhere in New York rests on the statute plus DEC's methods list rather than on a full reading of the regulations.
Buffalo sits where Lake Erie empties into the Niagara River, and that outflow defines the diving. Horseshoe Reef, marked by its ruined lighthouse, has under a metre of water on the crest and a fierce current running across it — a boat-supported drift for experienced divers and never a swim-out. Bird Island Reef, on the line of the vanished island at the entrance to the Black Rock Canal, has strong steady flow from the lake into the river; the visibility there is often excellent, but the flow decides whether there is a dive at all. Middle Reefs sit mid-channel between Buffalo Harbor and the Black Rock Canal in 1-2.5 m, with commercial and recreational traffic directly overhead. All three are live-boat drifts with a flag. Seneca Shoal, 10 km to the south-west in about 8 m, is out of the outflow and much calmer — the eastern-basin option when the river is not workable, though it clouds up fast in a west wind.
Lake Erie is the shallowest of the Great Lakes and its ice cover often reaches 90-100 % in February. The season runs May to October and this water warms first, up to 22-24 °C in August, which makes Buffalo one of the warmer dive destinations on the lakes in late summer. There is no tide to plan around: the Great Lakes astronomical range is a few centimetres and NOAA publishes no predictions for these stations, so what moves the water here is the river outflow and the wind-driven seiche — and on Lake Erie the seiche is large, because the basin is shallow and long. The CO-OPS gauge 9063020 sits in Buffalo harbour, less than half a kilometre from the forecast point.
Lake sturgeon is threatened in New York: fishing for it, including catch and release, is illegal, and the Great Lakes tables print lake sturgeon as closed with possession prohibited. Northern snakehead caught while angling cannot be released back into the water — it must be immediately killed and reported to DEC. Note the asymmetry: New York wants the same fish dead that Pennsylvania lets you spear, and gives you a bow instead. For the diving itself, plan around three hazards: current at the river head, commercial and recreational traffic through the Black Rock Canal and the harbour approaches, and the fish-consumption advisories New York publishes for Lake Erie. One diary item: ECL § 11-1301(1)(c) is marked repealed as of 1 June 2029, which changes the marine rule rather than the Great Lakes answer — but check it before then.
No. New York ECL § 11-1301(1)(a) allows fish to be taken only by angling in fresh water, and § 11-1301(1)(c) permits a spear or speargun only in the marine and coastal district, which does not reach Lake Erie or the Niagara.
The Atlantic Ocean within 3 miles of the coastline and all other tidal waters, including the Hudson upstream to the Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. Nothing on the Great Lakes is in it.
No. Its methods list is angling, ice fishing, bowfishing, taking baitfish, fish traps, nets and dip nets. DEC defines the word spear once and uses it for frogs.
Yes. New York allows carp by longbow, recurve, compound or crossbow, in any number or size, from 15 May to 30 September. No other fish may be taken with a bow.
Advanced. Horseshoe, Bird Island and Middle Reefs are 0.5-2.5 m deep but sit in fierce outflow current with traffic overhead — live-boat drifts only.
Seneca Shoal, about 8 m, 10 km south-west of Buffalo and out of the outflow. It clouds up fast in a west wind.
No. It is threatened in New York; fishing for it, including catch and release, is illegal and possession is prohibited.
Up to 22-24 °C in August. Ice cover on Lake Erie often reaches 90-100 % in February and the season runs May to October.
Portugal
