Huatulco spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras

spearo.app / Mexico / Huatulco
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◈Huatulco · Mexico
2.6
visibility: 2 m
visibility~2m

Dayisover

Today — sit it out.

Sources: NDBC · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 14:09

Sources & confidence

Sources
NDBC · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2
Method
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.

Entry pointsNo-take zonesLive cams

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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spearo.app · a private marine instrument · Huatulco · a planner, not a safety guaranteePrivacy
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0 m

Surface

Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.

spearo.app
updated 14:09
Huatulco — solo, off the rocks
Day is over
That is it for today — the day's windows have closed.
Tomorrow, best window 09:00–12:00
Best window · next 3 days

Next 3 days — not divable: wave up to 1.7 m

↓ low tide 18:15 · slack water ~17:30–19:00 bite times: 09:50–11:50 · 16:22–17:22

Tell me when it's on

Just your email — nothing else needed.

Before entering, check the camera and the surge
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.

Saturday · today2026-10-24
06:18–17:58 · full moon
▲ 00:00▼ 07:00▲ 13:00▼ 18:00 · 0.8 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide0.99 m
Wave1.50 m
Wind5 km/h
Water30 °C
fish activity: moonset 04:45 · moderate · moon underfoot 10:50 · high · moonrise 16:52 · moderate · moon overhead 23:10 · high
Open the seafloor map with entry points →

Your best window — with you. Forecast in your pocket.

Download on theApp StoreGET IT ONGoogle Play
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point your camera
−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.

See all spots →
−20 m

The 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 →
Bahía Cacaluta (Huatulco, fuera de núcleo)Huatulco
dangerous
⚠️ This point is inside the restricted zone “Parque Nacional Huatulco (contorno oficial del decreto digitalizado por la CONANP (polígono general del ANP))”: fishing there is regulated (season, gear, permit), not banned outright. Read the zone's rules before you go.
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
—

🔴 The label misleads: Cacaluta sits in the park's Restricted Use UR2 subzone, where diving is allowed but 'extracting any live or dead organism' is not, and Isla Cacaluta itself is in the Protection Zone — absolute no-take. Shallow coral, 8–10 m.

Google Maps
Bahía Conejos / Punta Arena (Huatulco)Huatulco
dangerous
exposed head-on to the swell today

One morning glance — and you know.

Download on theApp StoreGET IT ONGoogle Play
Google Play — QR code
point your camera
≈

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».

connecting to the stream…
● LIVE↗
Huatulco — Bahía Santa CruzLive — Huatulco — Bahía Santa Cruz. webcamsdemexico network camera (YouTube-live); the videoId rotates, so the stream is re-scraped on the fly by our proxy. Read the water before you go.camera: webcamsdemexico ↗
Open the seafloor map →
Reference

What's in season,
what the law says.

In season now
  • dog snapper / pargo
    Lutjanus novemfasciatus · 3–15 m · tide change — moving water · dusk/night
    Hard-fighting reef snapper around rocky points & pinnacles; ambush on the tide change, best at dusk/night. Peaks in the warm months. Mexican rule sets no minimum size.
  • leopard grouper
    Mycteroperca rosacea · 5–25 m · tide change — moving water · daytime
    Leopard grouper on rocky reef, by day. Forms spawning aggregations in spring (Apr–Jun) — very vulnerable then, take sparingly. No minimum size in the rule.
  • California sheephead
    Semicossyphus pulcher · 3–20 m · tide change — moving water · daytime
    California sheephead on rocky reef, by day; resident, best in the warm months. Roots the bottom — approach slowly. No minimum size in the rule.
  • yellow snapper
    Lutjanus argentiventris · 3–15 m · tide change — moving water · dusk/night
    Yellow snapper by rocks & estuary edges; warm months, best at dusk/night on the tide change. No minimum size in the rule.
off season: yellowtail (Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May) · Pacific sierra (Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr) · white seabass (Mar Apr May Jun Jul)
Not a target — don't shoot
  • mahi-mahi / dorado⚠️ release / rod-only
    ⚠️ Reserved for rod-and-reel in the 50-mile belt — conservatively DON'T spear it (the exact DOF wording isn't quoted).
Campeche
  • Tampico
  • Sisal
  • La Pesca
  • Progreso

    • Mexican Caribbean

    • Xcalak
    • Mahahual
    • Tulum
    • Akumal
    • Playa del Carmen
    • Cozumel
    • Isla Holbox
    • Puerto Morelos
    • Cancún
    • Isla Mujeres

    Sea of Cortez

    • Cabo Pulmo
    • San José del Cabo
    • Cabo San Lucas
    • Buenavista
    • Los Barriles
    • La Ventana

    Baja Pacific

    • Todos Santos

    All 63 spots → · spearo.app — All countries

    transparency nearby ~21 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore

    ⚠️ Active storm: HU Vance — 814 km away. Do not dive — follow the NHC.
    window
    —

    Bay east of Punta Violín, and therefore outside the park — the only Huatulco entry that is clean on that count. Playa Punta Arena is on the northwest side facing the Copalita rivermouth: some 90 m of sloping sand and strong waves, panga from Santa Cruz. 3–14 m.

    Google Maps
    Bahías de Huatulco (fuera de núcleos)Huatulco
    dangerous
    exposed head-on to the swell today
    window
    —

    The pin has been moved into the water of Bahía Chahué — one of the four bays (Santa Cruz, Chahué, Tangolunda, Conejos) that lie OUTSIDE the park's marine polygon: that polygon runs from Punta Sacrificios to Punta Violín, ~2 nm offshore, and its northern limit is 15°44'13". 3–15 m on record.

    Google Maps

    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.

  • roosterfish⚠️ release / rod-only
    ⚠️ Reserved for rod-and-reel in the 50-mile belt — conservatively DON'T spear it (the exact DOF wording isn't quoted).
  • totoaba🚫 no-take
    🚫 Totoaba — permanent no-take (moratorium since 1975, NOM-059 'P', CITES I). Do not take, release.
    • Law
    • ✓Spearfishing needs an INDIVIDUAL permit of its own: «la pesca subacuática … requerirá de permiso individual» (, art. 4.3). /SADER issue it online through E5CINCO (day/week/month/year). You must carry the permit and show it whenever you are asked (art. 4.14). Apnea only — spearing on scuba is banned (art. 4.5).
    • ✓One speargun per fisher — band, spring or pneumatic; hooks (ganchos), gaffs (fisgas) and light lures are prohibited (, art. 4.5). The spearfishing bag is 5 specimens per person per day, of any marine or freshwater fish (art. 4.9.4). You may not fish within 250 m of working commercial vessels and set gear, nor within 250 m of the shore of beaches used by bathers (art. 4.10).
    • ✓Reserved to rod-and-reel sport fishing (do NOT spear, conservative rule): marlin, sailfish, swordfish, tarpon, roosterfish and dorado. Lobster, conch and octopus are outside sport fishing.
    • ✓Grouper (mero) closed season to 31 Mar (Gulf/Yucatán focus). Marine ANPs (APFF Islas del Golfo — Espíritu Santo, Balandra) are no-take cores: do not shoot.
    • ✓Only FISH may be taken. Crustaceans and molluscs are prohibited — with a single exception for squid; marine mammals, reptiles and amphibians are out too (, art. 4.2). Lobster, conch and octopus fall under that ban.
    • ✓The catch belongs to the permit holder and MAY NOT be traded (, art. 4.11). Filleting ashore is not allowed — only aboard and only for eating during the trip (billfish excepted); gutting is fine (art. 4.12).
    • ✓Nets, multi-hook longlines, explosives and toxic substances may not merely be used — they may not even be CARRIED on a sport-fishing vessel (, art. 4.16). Anchoring closer than 15 m to the perimeter of a coral reef is prohibited, and on the reef itself never.
    • ✓The federal rules are a FLOOR, not a ceiling. You may not fish in closed zones and seasons, and in refuge zones, reserves and ANPs fishing «is permitted only on the terms and conditions laid down by the instruments applicable in that zone», plus the express authorisation of the Secretariat (, art. 4.10). So inside a protected area read its own Reglas Administrativas — they can ban the speargun outright.
    • ✓The permit is not always a federal one. In Quintana Roo sport-recreational fishing needs a STATE permit: «Se requiere permiso del Instituto para la realización de Pesca en su modalidad Deportivo-recreativa» (Ley de Pesca Responsable y Acuacultura para el Estado de Quintana Roo, art. 38). Other coastal states have comparable laws.
    • ⛔ 🚫 Sport spearfishing is fish-only: lobster, conch (caracol) and octopus may NOT be speared (squid is the sole exception). §4.2.
    • ⛔ 🚫 Totoaba, sea turtles, marine mammals and corals — no-take (). Inside the national parks (Cabo Pulmo, Cozumel, Puerto Morelos, Revillagigedo) all hunting is banned.

    Rules change. Before heading out, check with CONAPESCA/SADER (E5CINCO permit), CONANP (no-take marine ANPs) and NOM-059; apnea only.

    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 · Huatulco

    Spearfishing in Huatulco: spots, seasons and rules

    Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher

    Spearfishing in Huatulco is possible only with clear zoning. The useful references are reefs outside National Park cores or with ANP buffer checks: Bahias de Huatulco, Bahia Cacaluta and Bahia Conejos/Punta Arena. They are coral-and-rock reefs from about 3 to 15 m, normally by boat, and every entry needs a boundary check. Carry the CONAPESCA/SADER permit, hunt on apnea only, and do not shoot if a reef touches a closed core, coral area or unclear boundary.

    TL;DR

    • Huatulco is zoning-first: use only reefs outside closed National Park cores and verified ANP subzones.
    • Useful references are Bahias de Huatulco, Cacaluta and Conejos/Punta Arena, all treated as intermediate boat dives.
    • Mexico rules: CONAPESCA/SADER permit, apnea only, one speargun, five fish daily and no coral or reserve hunting.

    Best spearfishing spots in Huatulco

    The best Huatulco spot is the one you can prove is outside a closed core. Beauty, proximity and calm water are secondary to zoning.

    SpotTypeDepthLevelAccessNotes
    Bahias de Huatulco outside coresCoral and rock reef3-15 mIntermediate; boat diveBy boat, outside National Park coresGeneral reference only outside closed subzones. Keep the float away from coral and tourist boats.
    Bahia CacalutaCoral reef3-15 mIntermediate with ANP checkBoat access; verify zoningPotential buffer/subzone issue. Use it only with clear boundaries.
    Bahia Conejos / Punta ArenaCoral and rock reef3-14 mIntermediateBoat access with subzone checkShallow rock for reef fish, cabrilla, barracuda and grouper where allowed. Do not shoot on coral.

    When are conditions best in Huatulco?

    Choose low sea, clear water and a boat plan that stays outside closed National Park cores. Morning can reduce wind and tourist traffic, but it does not fix uncertain zoning. Cacaluta and Conejos/Punta Arena need ANP subzone checks before entry. The Mexico baseline applies: CONAPESCA/SADER permit, apnea only, one band or pneumatic speargun, five fish per day, 250 m from swimmers or commercial gear, no lobster, conch or octopus, and no shooting in coral, ANP cores or unclear polygons.

    FAQ

    Where can you spearfish in Huatulco?

    Only on reefs outside closed cores, such as verified sectors of Bahias de Huatulco, Cacaluta or Conejos/Punta Arena.

    Is Cacaluta automatically legal?

    No. It needs an ANP zoning or buffer check before hunting.

    Can you shoot on coral reef?

    Do not shoot coral or use coral areas where the boundary or rule is unclear.

    Do you need a CONAPESCA permit?

    Yes. The individual recreational-sport fishing permit is required.

    Is scuba spearfishing allowed?

    No. Spearfishing is apnea only.

    Sources

    • CONAPESCA, permiso de pesca deportivo-recreativa
    • CONAPESCA, pesca deportiva y recreativa
    • CONANP, áreas naturales protegidas

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