spearo sea-state engine: consensus of up to 6 models + satellite clarity (ZSD) + buoy-bias checks
Freshness
Re-read every hour, per coast
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.
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.
01
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.
02
Wind & gusts
Speed and gusts, hour by hour — wind speed and an onshore push chop the surface and cut visibility.
03
Tide phase
Timing and range of the tide, calibrated per coast — big spring tides pull the verdict toward caution.
04
Water temperature
Sea-surface temperature — sharply cold water vetoes a green verdict.
05
Currents & outflow
Direction and drift of the current — it pushes you, and it drags turbid coastal water across where you dive.
06
Rain runoff & air clarity
Rain muddies the water inshore through land runoff, while fog and haze cut visibility at the surface.
07
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 — where night spearfishing is banned by law the window is forced red; where it is legal (Australia outside NSW, New Zealand, South Africa) it is capped at yellow, never green.
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
This verdict — in your pocket. Open the app for the week's window.
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0 m
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
no dataupdated 03:34
Cabo de Palos — solo, off the rocks
BORDERLINE
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · strong wind 20 km/h, gusts 24 — caution
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Your best window — with you. Forecast in your pocket.
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−10 m
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: 3016 spots across 406 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
There is no road down to the water, so swimmers are rare and boats scarce — that is the cape's real value. Water runs from 14.7 °C in March to 25.6 °C in late August, and October gives the best balance of warmth and clarity at 21.6 °C. The wall drops deep, but scuba is banned for spearfishing across Spain: breath-hold only. Night is out, sunset to sunrise.
tide
Tide is ignorable here, 10–20 cm, and there is no tidal stream. Right at the point the water wraps the cape and speeds up over the depth step; nobody has published measurements for Negrete, so treat it as variable and plan your exit early, not on what breath you have left. After a storm the murky Portmán layer joins in.
shelter
A south-facing cape under Monte de las Cenizas, 307 m. The western flank looks into Portmán bay and holds the Levante; the eastern one, towards Cala del Barco, covers Poniente and Lebeche. A textbook flip spot: round the cape to the lee side and get to work. Do not confuse it with Punta Negrete, 4.5 km east in Calblanque — a different feature altogether.
conditions
The key risk here is not the wind but the neighbour: Portmán bay is filled with tailings from the Sierra Minera, and with a westerly or after a storm that load travels east, straight onto the cape. So with west swell and in the first days after a blow you stay away. The eastern flank towards Cala del Barco is markedly cleaner — hide there with Levante.
hazard
The Cabo de Palos reserve is some ten kilometres east, so here you are outside it. On land, though, the Portmán remediation is ongoing: works and fencing can close your approach. The cliffs are vertical and depth starts at the shore, and inside the park no motor navigation within 50 m of the coast. A buoy with the Alfa flag is compulsory, 250 m from swimmers is the Murcia rule.
access
Two ways in, both on foot. The coastal path from Portmán along the eastern side of the bay is the clearer one; the other drops down the Monte de las Cenizas tracks from the western sector visitor centre. Nobody has described the timings or the state of the track properly, so allow margin. Calblanque's summer driving restrictions apply here too.
Rocky cape toward Portmán; deep drop-offs, very exposed to the S, advanced.
The approach keeps it empty even in August — the shuttle does not come here. On foot from Cala Reona it is 1.3 km in a straight line, twenty-five to thirty-five minutes on the path. The working hour is first light; in July and August the water reads 24–26 °C with a thermocline near 15 m. Night is out, and the Murcia licence is separate: 18+, medical certificate and insurance.
tide
The tide is the same 10–20 cm and changes nothing for hunting. Between Cala Arturo and Cala Cocón a weak drift runs along the shore once the wind has settled — you notice it hanging over the rocks and being quietly carried. No watercourse drains into these coves, so after a blow the water clears in about a day, faster than on the sandy beaches west of here.
shelter
This is the eastern sector of Calblanque, where the coast swings from south to south-east and east, between Cala Arturo and Cala Cocón. Levante comes in head-on, with nowhere to hide. Poniente and Lebeche, though, blow off the land here, held by Cerro del Atalayón and Cabezo de la Escucha. It mirrors Cala Salitrona: that one works with Levante, these with westerlies.
conditions
Come with a west or south-west wind. The coves are small and rocky, with tongues of gravel and sand: in calm you see far and read the bottom whole. With Levante it changes within the hour — the sea walks into the mouth and lifts sand from the patches between rocks, leaving you three metres. The name Dentoles tells you what to look for at the outer rocks.
hazard
The reserve enlarged by Decreto 31/2026 starts some seven kilometres north, past the port of Cabo de Palos — the line is close and worth checking on the CARM map before you drive out. A boat drop-off is illegal here: motorised entry into the park is banned, as is navigation within 50 m of the shore. No phone signal, rock entries, and a buoy with the Alfa flag is compulsory.
access
You come in on the dirt tracks of the park's eastern sector, past the La Boquera access control, then walk. The usual line is the coastal path from Cala Reona: the same one that links Cala Cocón, Cala Arturo and carries on to Playa de Calblanque. No 4x4 needed, but the last drop into each cove is over rock and boots are not a luxury.
Rocky coves SW of the cape; rich grounds, moderately exposed to the E-SE.
The best window is September and October: water around 24 °C, fish active, almost nobody about. July and August are the reverse — dive boats and pleasure craft come out of the port from early on. You work at first light, which in August is 07:11. Night is banned across Spain, sunset to sunrise, and the Murcia spearfishing licence is only issued from 18.
tide
The tide is 10–20 cm and does not count. The real water movement comes from the cape: on the Bajo de Fuera and Seco de Palos banks the flow can be noticeable, and dive centres habitually blame mareas vivas — physically it is wind-driven drift, there are no tides of that size here. Close to shore in the cove it pulls moderately; swim into it first.
shelter
The cove sits on the outer, Mediterranean face south-east of Cabo de Palos, looking south-east and south. Levante comes in on the beam, but the cape itself cuts part of the sea from the north, so it holds better here than on La Manga. Poniente and Lebeche blow off the land: with westerlies this is the easiest point in the sector. The port lies a kilometre and a half north.
conditions
Westerlies give the best water of the season here: in May and June the whole Cabo de Palos zone runs 20–30 m of visibility at 18–21 °C. With Levante, and after a Mar Menor flush, the water goes green within hours — the bottom is mixed, sand, rock and posidonia, and the murk hangs over the clearings. July and August bring 26–28 °C and a thermocline around 15 m.
hazard
The line comes first. The Cabo de Palos reserve was enlarged by Decreto 31/2026, in force since 23 May 2026: cell C says in so many words Se prohíbe la pesca marítima de recreo submarina, cell A bans any fishing at all, and offshore the ban runs out to the Islas Hormigas. The cove sits right against the line: east and south of it you do not shoot.
access
The easiest access in the whole sector: tarmac from the village of Cala Reona, parking right by the beach, no 4x4 needed. The paths south also start here — to Cala Cocón, Cala de los Dentoles and Cala Magre if you want away from people. Entry is sand and stone and the working rock is a few minutes' swim; the port is a kilometre and a half off.
Rocky ground north of the cape; RESPECT the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas reserve boundary (forbidden to the E).
In summer you can only drive in until 09:00, so you leave in the dark: first light is 06:33 on 15 June. The shuttle runs on 27 and 28 June and from 4 July to 30 August 2026, 09:15–14:30 and 15:45–20:30. The best windows are May-June and September-October: water at 18.7 and 21.6 °C, and the summer access regime is off.
tide
The level moves 10–20 cm and there is no tidal stream. What there is, is the CARM's official warning of posibilidad de corrientes on the Calblanque beaches: wind drift, not tide, and on the sandy stretches you feel it. After settled Levante a greenish haze drags along the shore from the Mar Menor and La Manga side.
shelter
The name misleads: Peña del Águila is a 389 m summit seven kilometres inland, while the point sits on the Calblanque shore itself, 640 m from Punta Negrete. The coast runs west to east facing south and south-south-east, and the Hacho, Negrete and Parreño headlands cut it into pockets. Levante runs along the shore; N and NW blow off the land.
conditions
The good day is north and north-west: the wind comes off the land and in calm the water here is very clean. Levante, from the 90–210 sector and worst around 120, builds swell along the sandy beaches, and with the dunes behind them the murk holds for two days. With a westerly you add the outflow from Portmán bay, filled with mine tailings, eight kilometres away.
hazard
There is no marine ban in Calblanque: the PORN, Decreto 45/1995, covers land only. But sport fishing inside the park needs a comunicación previa filed with the DGPNAC in the first two months of the year. Eastward the shore abuts the reserve enlarged by Decreto 31/2026. There is no phone signal on the beaches, and entering the park by motorboat is banned.
access
In summer everything hangs on the shuttle from Parking Los Belones: 2 € one way, 3 € return; Línea 1 runs to Playa Larga and Negrete, Línea 2 to Playa Calblanque. Outside the regime you can reach the El Atochar public car park, but only between 08:00 and 09:00, and from 20:30 no vehicles are allowed in the beach zone. No water and no food inside.
Protected rocky coast of Calblanque, OUTSIDE the reserve; drop-offs and sand, sea bream and gilthead, exposed to the SE.
SOLO 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.
One morning glance — and you know.
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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».
Sin prohibición estatal de captura (NO está en el Catálogo Español, RD 139/2011).
common octopus
Octopus vulgaris · Mediterranean · 1 kg
Talla por PESO: mín. 1 kg (RD 560/1995, todos los anexos). No coger hembras con huevos.
Law
✓Spearfishing licence mandatory; the AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY issues it (not the State) and it is valid in the exterior waters of the whole coast. Free-diving only — scuba is banned (, art. 3).
✓Spearfishing catch may not be sold or traded — it is non-commercial fishing ().
✓Night prohibited: spearfishing only in daylight (sunset to sunrise not allowed) — , art. 16.d.
✓Marker buoy MANDATORY: mark your position with a clearly visible buoy and stay within 25 m of it — , art. 15.
✓Never keep the speargun loaded out of the water — , art. 16.a.
✓Keep at least 300 m from professional fishing vessels that are working — , art. 12.b.
✓The state act (, art. 16) bans, for spearfishing: a loaded gun out of the water; explosive/electric points and lamps (hand torches excepted); underwater scooters; night — from sunset to sunrise. Plus art. 12 b), d), e): 300 m from professional fishing vessels, light as an attractant, poisons/explosives. A ban in a PARTICULAR reserve, port or beach comes from that place's OWN instrument (the reserve's order, the autonomous community's rules, the port authority) — see the no-take zones on the map and your community's rules.
✓Min. sizes by ( + + EU 2019/1241): sea bass 42 cm (rec.) / 36 cm / 25 cm Mediterranean / 22 cm Canaries; gilthead bream 20 cm and white seabream 23 cm in the Mediterranean (EU 2019/1241); grouper 45 cm. See your zone's species card.
✓Only species in Annex I of may be taken; keeping, landing or transporting undersized specimens is prohibited.
✓The licence needs a medical fitness certificate for free-diving and civil-liability insurance (or a federative licence, which includes it). Mandatory in the Basque Country/Murcia/Asturias/Galicia; the federative licence covers it in Galicia/Balearics/Cantabria; the Canaries and Andalusia do NOT require it for the individual licence (a responsible health declaration). Minimum age generally 16 (14 in Andalusia).
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.
Local guide · Cabo de Palos
Spearfishing in Cabo de Palos: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Cabo de Palos is legality-first. The Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas marine reserve is listed as closed to spearfishing, and Cala Reona must be treated as a boundary spot with the east side forbidden. Use only outside-reserve coast such as Calblanque, Cala Magre / Cala de los Dentoles or Cabo Negrete when conditions allow. The legal split is Murcia plus Mediterranean species sizes.
TL;DR
Do not frame the marine reserve as a spearfishing area. It is listed as banned.
Main weather risk: E-SE sea, with the bad sector running east through south-southwest.
✓There is no fixed national catch cap (, art. 5 delegates it to the communities); the standard is 5 kg/person/day, with 1 specimen allowed not to count (Canaries — Decreto 182/2004, art. 38.3; Murcia; Galicia; Basque Country). Protected species have per-piece quotas.
✓Only a harpoon is allowed — hand-held or mechanically propelled, with one or several points (, art. 14.1). Carrying spearfishing gear and underwater breathing equipment aboard AT THE SAME TIME is prohibited (art. 14.2) — an offence in itself, even if you dived on a breath hold.
✓Spain is not one jurisdiction. The licence is issued by a coastal autonomous community, and you must comply with the rules of the administration on whose littoral you are in the water: «debiendo cumplir la normativa establecida por la administración en cuyo litoral se realice la actividad» (, art. 13). Interior waters — inside the straight baselines: bays, coves, rías, the whole coastal strip — are the community's competence; exterior waters are the State's. So the age, the days of the week, the distances and the are found in your community's act, not in the state one.
•Murcia: Law 2/2007; the spearfishing licence is processed separately at the CARM. Confirm the exact procedure page at carm.es.
✓Bans: RMIP Cabo de Palos–Islas Hormigas and Cabo Tiñoso — spearfishing banned (see zones).
✓Murcia (Decreto 72/2016, internal waters): the spearfishing licence requires being of FULL AGE — 18 (art. 11.2.a; the surface licence is 14, art. 7.2) — a medical certificate of physical fitness for spearfishing specifically, and accident + third-party liability insurance covering the whole licence period; it lasts 1 year (art. 11.2–3). Only a harpoon is allowed, hand-held or mechanically propelled, with one or several points (art. 12). A clearly visible buoy with the Alfa flag is mandatory and you may not go more than 25 m from it (art. 13). Prohibited: carrying spearfishing gear and underwater breathing equipment aboard at the same time, spearfishing within 250 m of beaches used by bathers, night — sunset to sunrise, a loaded gun out of the water, any autonomous or semi-autonomous diving equipment, explosive/electric points and lamps (hand torches excepted) and underwater scooters (art. 14). General bans: no invertebrates other than the cephalopods of the state decree's Annex I (art. 5.c); 200 m from professional set gear, aquaculture polygons and fishing vessels (art. 5.i); no recreational fishing at all in marine reserves and in navigable and port-access channels (art. 5.k).
⛔ Seahorses (Hippocampus) — protected (RPE).
Rules change and are REGIONAL. Before heading out, check with the competent autonomous community (licence) and the min-size table in force.
The local coast is exposed to east and southeast sea. Calblanque is listed outside the reserve, with rock, sand, sargo and gilthead, but it takes SE swell. Cala Magre / Cala de los Dentoles are rocky coves southwest of the cape with moderate E-SE exposure. Cala Reona is north of the cape but carries the key warning: respect the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas reserve boundary, forbidden to the east. Cabo Negrete toward Portmán is advanced, deep and very exposed to south. Use the Cala de Hierro / Faro webcam before committing, especially when E-SE is active.
FAQ
Is the Cabo de Palos-Islas Hormigas reserve open to spearfishing?
No. The legal rule lists it as banned.
Which spot has the clearest boundary warning?
Cala Reona, because the east side is forbidden.
What conditions are worst?
East to southeast sea, with E-SE the worst direction.
What licence applies?
A Murcia spearfishing licence processed separately through CARM.
Spain
