Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and noticeable surge.
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
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.
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Cairns, 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.
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 mapRock headland between Palm Cove and Ellis Beach; boulder shoreline with reef patches, 3–8 m. Inside the GBR Marine Park — check the GBRMPA zoning for this exact pin before spearing. This water is Croc Country; the sighting reports DES publishes are the only current answer, and they are worth reading the morning you go. Stinger season is roughly November to May — full cover, or stay out.
Google MapsInfo/launch point — muddy croc-risk foreshore, no shore diving. Day boats run to the outer GBR ribbon reefs from here.
Google MapsIsland fringing reef off Palm Cove; the crossing is well beyond a casual shore swim, so treat the mainland-side rock as the practical ground, 3–10 m. The GBR Marine Park covers this position and zones it polygon by polygon — read the GBRMPA map for the pin, not for the region. Croc Country: read the current DES sighting reports before you get in. Stinger season is roughly November to May — full cover, or stay out.
Google MapsMarina breakwall and small rocky headland south of the boat ramp, about 20 km north of the city, 2–6 m. Croc Country: read the current DES sighting reports before you get in. Roughly Nov–May the water carries box jellyfish and Irukandji; a full suit with hood and gloves is the minimum.
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.
Cameras, 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».
Spearfishing at Cairns is mostly a list of reasons to dive on another day or another coast. The city sits on Trinity Inlet, a turbid mangrove estuary with a muddy croc-risk foreshore and no shore diving; the reef is a dry-season day-boat trip out of Marlin Marina. The northern-beaches headlands hold reef patches in 2-10 m, but each one is inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and inside Croc Country, and roughly November to May the water carries box jellyfish and Irukandji. Read the GBRMPA zoning for the exact pin, not for the region.
Read this as a map of constraints rather than a shortlist of targets. Every mark is inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, where zoning is drawn polygon by polygon, and all of it is Croc Country.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairns — Marlin Marina (reef launch) | Launch point on a turbid mangrove estuary | No shore diving | Information only | Boat only; day boats run to the outer GBR ribbon reefs | A muddy croc-risk foreshore. This is where a reef trip starts, not a dive. |
| Buchan Point | Rock headland with reef patches, Palm Cove to Ellis Beach | 3-8 m | Zone check first, conditions second | Boulder shoreline off the headland | Check the GBRMPA zoning for this exact pin before spearing, and read the current DES crocodile sighting reports the morning you go. |
| Double Island (Palm Cove) | Island fringing reef off Palm Cove |
SpainRules change and vary BY STATE. Before heading out, check with your state's fisheries (NSW DPI, Fisheries QLD, VFA, DPIRD WA, PIRSA, NRE Tas, NT Fisheries) and the marine-park zoning map.
| 3-10 m |
| The crossing is well beyond a casual shore swim |
| Treat the mainland-side rock as the practical ground |
| Stinger season is roughly November to May: full cover, or stay out. |
| Yorkeys Knob — Half Moon Bay rock wall | Marina breakwall and small rocky headland | 2-6 m | Shallow structure, conditions permitting | South of the boat ramp, about 20 km north of the city | Croc Country. Roughly November to May a full suit with hood and gloves is the minimum. |
Put that question to Fisheries Queensland before you dive. The claim that no recreational licence applies in Queensland tidal waters could not be confirmed on an official page, so it is not asserted here. What is documented is the permit side: a Stocked Impoundment Permit applies in listed stocked freshwater impoundments, and spearfishing is banned in fresh water in any case. The gear and zoning rules are what actually shape a Cairns plan.
Green zones first. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park zoning applies on top of the Queensland rules, and a Marine National Park zone is no fishing or collecting under the Zoning Plan 2003. Queensland also allows spearing only in selected tidal water locations and applies closed-water restrictions, so 'it is the sea' is not an answer. Every mark listed here sits inside the marine park and the zoning is drawn polygon by polygon, so check the GBRMPA map for your pin. Fresh water is closed outright.
In the dry season, on a light wind, and after reading the hazard feeds. The coast faces east with the bad sector from about 30 to 150 degrees, and the inshore floor is turbid, so the northern beaches are the only clear-ish option. This is Croc Country, and the DES sighting reports are the current answer. Stinger season runs roughly November to May. The Palm Cove camera is a surface-chop clue, not a visibility reading.
Coral trout is 38 cm inside a combined limit of 7 across trout species. Redthroat emperor is 38 cm limit 8, spangled emperor 45 cm limit 5, red emperor 55 cm limit 5 and grass emperor 30 cm limit 10. Spanish mackerel is 75 cm and one fish per person on the east coast. Giant trevally has no size limit inside a combined trevally limit of 20, and barramundi is a 58-120 cm slot with a limit of 5. Queensland publishes these as possession limits, not daily bag limits.
Two five-day coral reef fin fish spawning closures fall in October and November each year, 8-12 October and 6-10 November in 2026. Snapper and pearl perch close 15 July to 15 August, and barramundi 1 November to 31 January, with night spearing of barramundi banned. Queensland groper, potato rockcod, barramundi cod, humphead Maori wrasse, red bass, chinaman fish and paddletail are no-take.
The city foreshore is a turbid mangrove estuary with no shore diving. The northern-beaches headlands are the only rock, and each needs a zone check.
Yes. A Marine National Park zone is no fishing or collecting, and the zoning is drawn polygon by polygon.
No. Underwater breathing apparatus may not be used to take fish, so it is snorkel only.
Only for shark defence. They may not be used to take fish.
Queensland Health advises avoiding large tropical reef predators and the head, roe and liver, and eating no more than 300 g of an unfamiliar warm-water fish.
Roughly November to May, when box jellyfish and Irukandji are in the water. Full cover with hood and gloves, or stay out.
Portugal
