Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
Sources:MeteoAlarm · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 22:08
Sources & confidence
Sources
MeteoAlarm · 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.
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
MeteoAlarm no dataupdated 22:08
Limnos — solo, off the rocks
BORDERLINE
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · wind 17 km/h
wave 0.3 m head-onwind 17 km/hvisibility ~6 mwindow 18:00–21:00
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
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.
The tavernas above the stones open early, the swimmers follow, and by midday the shore is full of people. Nationally the season runs June into autumn and between sunset and sunrise shooting is banned all year. On this stretch of coast it never opens at all.
tide
Twenty to thirty centimetres of level here, so ignore it. What does move is the ground swell out of the west: it arrives without wind, surges you back and forth between the boulders and makes shallow work tiring. After autumn rain the streams off the hills lay a brown layer over the first metre.
shelter
West coast under the Kaspakas hills, with volcanic boulders walking out into the water. The northerly passes over the tops and off the land, so the surface right at the stones stays calm even when it is white outside; a west or north-west swell, though, breaks straight onto the slabs. Shooting here is prohibited.
conditions
It flattens over the boulders with any wind that has east in it — offshore here. On west and north-west the sea builds across the whole north Aegean and the entry over the slabs turns dangerous before the visibility even goes. You do not come down with a gun, though: the Myrina – Petasos site is closed.
hazard
The shore belongs to the declared underwater archaeological site «Myrina, Petasos, Limnos» (ΦΕΚ 562/Β/1996): the speargun is outlawed under ΚΥΑ ΦΕΚ 336/Β/2004, the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities is in charge, and you take nothing off the bottom. Add two hundred metres from bathers, three hundred from the Myrina harbour works.
access
Asphalt from Myrina through Kaspakas, ten minutes, and you park by the tavernas built into the rock. Only the entry is awkward: the volcanic slabs are sharp and slippery at once, so go in with fins in hand. Short swim, the boulders start right away. You come here for a swim, not to hunt — it is banned.
Volcanic boulders and sand on the W coast, easy shore entry. ⚠️ It falls inside the declared underwater archaeological area of Myrina–Petassos (ΦΕΚ 562/Β/1996, ΦΕΚ 1569/Β/2002), where ΚΥΑ ΦΕΚ 336/Β/2004 prohibits spearfishing. Shore.
First light is the window: the sea is at its flattest before the day breeze fills in, though the reef sits deep enough that you want sun overhead within the hour. June through September, September the most reliable. From sunset to sunrise the gun stays out of the water, no exceptions in Greece.
tide
Level moves ten to thirty centimetres and you will never notice it. What you will notice is the current sweeping round the headland: it runs along the reef and pushes you off it, so the boat follows you rather than anchoring. Below thirty metres the water turns noticeably colder and the light goes flat.
shelter
Mourtzeflos is the north-west corner of the island, and corners like this shelter nothing. Northerly and westerly seas meet right on the point, and the swell keeps wrapping round it long after the wind has eased. Only a settled southerly leaves a workable strip of water tight under the cliff wall.
conditions
Come here only when the forecast is flat or holding from the south-west. Any north or north-east in meltemi season and the point is out: standing waves off the tip, white water against the rock, nowhere to hold the boat. Even a dying northerly leaves a metre of leftover swell here for a full day.
hazard
The reef starts at twenty-five metres and drops to fifty, which is blackout country, and there is nothing to crawl out onto here but cliff. Never dive without a boat watching you, keep the marker buoy up, and remember tanks and a speargun together are banned. Anything old on the bottom stays there.
access
Boat only. From Myrina it is about fifteen kilometres up the west coast, forty minutes to an hour depending on the chop, and there is no road to the cape and no beach beneath it. On the way out, clear Myrina's harbour works by three hundred metres before you put anyone in the water.
Volcanic rock reef 25–50 m under 430 m cliffs at the NW tip — the best structure but fully exposed to the north; deep, blue, calm-only. Boat.
The beach is one of the island's postcards; in August you would not go near it with a gun, and it is quiet only early in the morning or in the last hours of light. General rule: season from June, night banned all year. Here the ban runs through all twelve months.
tide
Call it a couple of dozen centimetres of level and forget about it. The real movement runs along the beach: with wind on the sand a lateral drift builds and quietly carries you toward the far end, and every swell puts a fine sand haze back into the shallows. Under the rock a cooler layer holds.
shelter
The south-west coast is Limnos's back side: the whole island stands between this bay and the meltemi, so a hard northerly arrives as gusts off the land and the water stays readable. The pyramid rock kills what chop gets in. South and west land here first, though. A speargun in this bay is prohibited.
conditions
After days of northerly the sand settles and the rock reads to the bottom; a south-westerly turns the beach to soup within the hour and it clears again in a day. All of that you look at without a gun, though: the bay fell inside the closed archaeological site of Kaspakas – Myrina – Thanos.
hazard
The bay lies inside the declared underwater archaeological site «Kaspakas, Myrina, Thanos of Limnos» (ΦΕΚ 25/Β/1993), close to nine square kilometres; spearfishing there is prohibited under ΚΥΑ ΦΕΚ 336/Β/2004, the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities patrols it and nothing is lifted. Add swimmers and urchins on the ledges.
access
Off the Myrina to Kontias road a turn drops to the beach with gravel parking above it: the easiest shore access on Limnos. You walk in over sand, about two hundred metres of swimming out to the rock. Carry water, there is no shade on the climb back. The gun stays at home — the area is closed.
Pyramid-shaped rocky point + sand on the SW coast — leeward, the easiest shore rock. Shore. ⚠️ It falls inside the declared underwater archaeological area of Kaspakas–Myrina–Thanos (ΦΕΚ 25/Β/1993, ΦΕΚ 562/Β/1996), where ΚΥΑ ΦΕΚ 336/Β/2004 bans spearfishing.
Late morning, once the sun is high enough to light metal at depth, because a wreck in flat grey light is a wasted trip. Season is June to September; in August day-boats come out of Moudros, so pick a weekday. Sunset closes it, and the gun stays out of the water until the next sunrise.
tide
Ten to forty centimetres of level, nothing you would plan around. The water that matters moves through the gulf mouth: with a settled meltemi it drifts out past the point, slow but constant, and it walks you off the wreck if you stop watching. From midsummer a cold layer sits under the warm one.
shelter
The Fakos peninsula stands between you and the open eastern Aegean, so a north-easter breaks on its ridge and arrives here as wind without sea. The spot looks inward, roughly west, which makes it quiet in meltemi and awkward the moment anything blows from the south or south-west.
conditions
Meltemi days are exactly when to be here: the ridge holds the sea off and the water inside the gulf stays workable. Skip it on a southerly, the fetch runs straight up the mouth, the swell hits the point and the sand cloud around the wreck never settles. Rain in the hills costs a day or two as well.
hazard
Wrecks collect nets and loose monofilament, so carry a knife on your forearm and stay outside the structure; no penetration on a breath-hold, ever. Nothing comes up off a wreck either, that is a criminal matter in Greece. North of you at Sagrada a cave is marked as a seal cave, leave it entirely alone.
access
Boat, out of Moudros harbour and down the bay to the mouth, twenty to thirty minutes at cruising speed and longer if the inner bay is choppy. The peninsula has only dirt tracks and no usable shore entry, so do not plan on driving it. Keep three hundred metres off the harbour works and moored boats.
Wreck + rocky point on the SE peninsula — named as the island's best dive. Boat.
Evenings work best: the day heat lifts, the soft-bottom fish move onto the edges of the grass, and the bay is empty of tourists anyway. June to September. Around the airfield end, avoid any hour when something is obviously going on ashore. And between sunset and sunrise nothing happens, by law.
tide
The level itself does nothing here, ten to forty centimetres. Wind does the work instead: a few days of northerly push water out through the mouth and you feel a slow steady set at the narrows. Shallow water over seagrass gets warm and stays warm, and after rain the runoff sits as a murky brown lid.
shelter
A bay you could hide a fleet in, and people did: ten kilometres deep, a narrow mouth to the south, hills on every other side. Whatever the meltemi is doing outside, the water by the town is a mirror. Only a hard southerly gets any fetch up the bay, and even then it dies long before the inner shore.
conditions
The fallback for any wind, which is the only reason it is on this list. The trade-off: two to fifteen metres of sand and seagrass means the visibility is never Aegean blue, and a day of wind chop stirs the shallows green. Best after two or three settled days, and stay out of the muddiest inner corners.
hazard
This bay is military ground as much as water: a joint civil-military airfield sits on its north-west shore with fenced areas and photography restrictions, so ask the Moudros port authority where you may enter before you get wet. Koukonisi islet is an archaeological site. Three hundred metres off the harbour.
access
The ring road follows the bay, so you can leave the car almost anywhere along the eastern and southern shore and walk in over sand or low rock, which is the whole point of the place. From the town a boat puts you on the grass beds in minutes. Just keep clear of the harbour front itself.
Big enclosed SE bay, sand/seagrass 2–15 m — the all-wind lee, soft-bottom species. ⚠️ Military airfield adjacent — check the port authority. Shore/boat.
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».
connecting to the stream…
Limnos — Myrina port + Romeikos Gialos beach (limnos-guide.gr)Live HLS (limnos-guide.gr) — Myrina port + Romeikos Gialos beach. Open CORS, embedded directly. Read the water before you go.camera: limnosguide ↗
National minimum sizes + a 150 g floor (in the table below); grouper 1/day. Spearfishing is closed all May (ΠΔ 373/1985).
In season now
gilthead seabream
Sparus aurata · 2–20 m · EU 1967/2006
European seabass
Dicentrarchus labrax · 0–15 m · EU 1967/2006
common octopus
Octopus vulgaris · 0–15 m · weight ≥750 g
Minimum by weight: ≥750 g (ΠΔ 62/2024). Don't take egg-bearing females.
dusky grouper
Epinephelus marginatus · 8–35 m · EU 1967/2006
Grouper: max 1/day (shared genus-Epinephelus limit).
wreckfish / stone bass
Polyprion americanus · 30–60 m · EU 1967/2006
Deep wreck species. Does NOT count toward the grouper limit (different genus). 45 cm — to verify.
common dentex
Dentex dentex · 12–40 m · min 150 g
Premier reef target. No EU size — the 150 g minimum only. Ethical ≥40 cm (not law).
red porgy
Pagrus pagrus · 15–40 m · EU 1967/2006
white seabream
Diplodus sargus · 0–12 m · EU 1967/2006
saddled seabream
Oblada melanura · 3–15 m · min 150 g
No EU size — only the 150 g minimum applies.
greater amberjack
Seriola dumerili · 5–30 m · min 150 g
No EU size — only the 150 g minimum applies.
leerfish / garrick
Lichia amia · 2–20 m · min 150 g
No EU size — only the 150 g minimum applies.
Mediterranean barracuda
Sphyraena viridensis · 3–25 m · min 150 g
No EU size — the 150 g minimum only. Histamine: bleed and chill at once.
flathead grey mullet
Mugil cephalus · 0–8 m · min 150 g
No EU size — only the 150 g minimum applies.
striped seabream
Lithognathus mormyrus · 2–15 m · EU 1967/2006
brown meagre / corb
Sciaena umbra · 5–30 m · EU 1967/2006
striped red mullet
Mullus surmuletus · 3–30 m · EU 1967/2006
devil firefish (lionfish)
Pterois miles · 5–40 m · invasive
⚠️ Invasive — removal encouraged, excellent flesh. Venomous spines: never grab bare-handed, cut the spines, treat a sting with hot water (>45 °C).
silver-cheeked toadfish
Lagocephalus sceleratus · 5–40 m · invasive
☠️ Invasive — kill, but DO NOT EAT: deadly toxin (TTX). Sale banned (Reg. 853/2004, Annex III Sect. VIII Ch. V(E)). Powerful beak bites — never string it live on a stringer.
white grouper
Epinephelus aeneus · 15–45 m · EU 1967/2006
Grouper: max 1/day (shared genus-Epinephelus limit).
goldblotch grouper
Epinephelus costae · 10–35 m · EU 1967/2006
Grouper: max 1/day (shared genus-Epinephelus limit).
Mediterranean parrotfish
Sparisoma cretense · 2–20 m · min 150 g
Eastern-Med delicacy (Crete/Dodecanese). No EU size — the 150 g minimum only.
rabbitfish
Siganus rivulatus / luridus · 2–20 m · invasive
Invasive — removal encouraged, edible and tasty. Venomous dorsal/anal/pelvic spines — remove carefully, treat a sting with hot water.
Law
✓⚠️ MAY — a TOTAL spearfishing ban for the whole month, every year (ΠΔ 373/1985, art. 3§1α). This is law in force, not a draft.
✓No licence required: the was abolished in 2014 (Ν. 4256/2014) — every standing prohibition stays in force all the same.
•Recreational-fisher registry (ΟΣΠΑ / Μητρώο Ερασιτεχνών Αλιέων): Reg. (EU) 2023/2842 obliges member states to register recreational fishing, and the Greek registry is described as being prepared. We found neither an act in force nor a working registry as of 08.2026 — not confirmed. Check gov.gr before you travel.
✓Age: 16+ (under-16 spearfishing is forbidden; ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§1γ).
✓Daytime only: sunrise to sunset. Night is forbidden (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§1β).
✓Freediving only: scuba/any air-supply apparatus is banned — it may not even be carried aboard (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§2γ).
✓Distances: ≥200 m from bathers, harbours, moored vessels and marked nets; no hunting in fairways or harbour entrances/exits (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§1δ/ε).
✓Buoy MANDATORY: a yellow float + a yellow flag with a red diagonal stripe and the letters «Υ.Δ.», visible from ≥300 m; stay within 50 m of the buoy (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§3).
✓Limit: 5 kg/day (or one trophy heavier than the limit). Grouper (Epinephelus) — max 1/day, not banned (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 2§2).
✓Sale/trade of the recreational catch is prohibited (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 1§7).
✓Load the speargun only in the water — never keep it loaded out of the water (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§2β). Underwater light while hunting is forbidden (art. 3§2ζ).
✓Sea urchins — 20/day per person and 30/day per boat (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 2§2). Nets at any stage of the hunt are banned, and you may not take the catch out of somebody else's gear or nets (art. 3§2). Sponges and corals are off limits to the recreational fisher (art. 1§6).
✓Pneumatic and band guns are ALLOWED (a myth in English guides). Only spears with an explosive/chemical charge — — are banned (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§2δ).
Min. sizes: seabass 25 cm · gilthead 20 cm · white seabream 23 cm · grouper 45 cm · octopus 750 g (ΠΔ 62/2024). Any fish — not under 150 g (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 3§2στ). No-size species (dentex, amberjack, barracuda, parrotfish) — the 150 g minimum only. See the species card.
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 · Limnos
Spearfishing in Limnos: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Limnos spearfishing is a wind-first plan. The island sits in the N/NE meltemi line, with mostly sand and seagrass holding tsipoura, lavraki, mullet and octopus. Rock is concentrated at capes such as Mourtzeflos and Fakos. May is a total ban, no spearfishing licence has been issued since 2014, and all legal hunting is freediving-only with a 5 kg per person daily limit.
TL;DR
Limnos is sandy, volcanic and exposed to N/NE meltemi, so shelter matters more than spot names.
Use SW/S water and Moudros Bay in wind; Mourtzeflos is deep, exposed and calm-only.
Avoid Myrina and Bournias-Plaka archaeological diving closures; May is fully closed across Greece.
Where can you spearfish in Limnos?
Treat Limnos as an exposed island with a few hard-structure choices. Archaeological closures around Myrina and Bournias-Plaka need local checking before any dive plan.
Spot
Type
Depth
Level
Access
Notes
Cape Mourtzeflos
Volcanic reef under high cliffs
25-50 m
Deep, calm-only
Boat
The strongest structure, but fully exposed to north wind.
Evgatis / Nevgatis
Pyramid rock and sand on the SW coast
Qualitative shallow to moderate
Easier shore rock
Shore
A leeward SW option when the N/NE side is poor.
Moudros Bay
Enclosed SE bay with sand and seagrass
2-15 m
Sheltered, lower visibility
Shore or boat
The all-wind fallback. Check the port authority because a military airfield is nearby.
Fakos / Kobi Wreck
SE peninsula wreck and rocky point
Boat-led rocky ground
Local check needed
Boat
A named top dive area with Natura advisory context, not an automatic no-take in the local data.
Conditions and season essentials
The useful local season is June to September. May is fully closed to spearfishing throughout Greece, so do not plan around it. In N/NE meltemi, prefer SW/S water, Evgatis, Ai-Yannis or Moudros Bay; leave Cape Mourtzeflos for genuine calm. Greek rules require freediving only, no scuba or compressed air, and a 5 kg per person daily catch limit. No spearfishing licence has been issued since 2014, but check gov.gr for the recreational-fisher registry.
✓Full ban on taking: Pinna nobilis (πίννα), corals and sponges (ΠΔ 373/85, art. 1§6 + Habitats Directive 92/43).
✓Invasives: taking the lionfish (λεοντόψαρο) is encouraged — ⚠️ venomous spines. The silver-cheeked toadfish (λαγοκέφαλος) ☠️ DO NOT EAT — deadly toxin (TTX), sale banned (Reg. 853/2004, Annex III Sect. VIII Ch. V(E)), it bites. The rabbitfish (γερμανός) is edible — venomous spines.
✓In ANY declared underwater archaeological site, and in the submerged historic sites, spearfishing is BANNED — the act names ψαροντούφεκο in so many words (ΚΥΑ ΥΠΠΟ/ΓΔΑΠΚ/ΑΡΧ/Α1/Φ41/11228/1865, ΦΕΚ 336/Β/2004, part Α §2 δ + part Β). It reaches the sites our map does not draw, too. Do not touch antiquities (Ν. 3028/2002). Map of the zones — the ENALIA geoportal (thalchor-2.ypen.gov.gr/layers/geonode:ENALIA).
•The national marine parks of Alonissos/N. Sporades and Zakynthos (Laganas): spearfishing is BANNED in the park. But Alonissos zone Β4 is not solid — ΦΕΚ 1741/Β/2011 reopened four stretches inside it (the N shore Αγ. Δημήτριος–Άκρο Απύθμενο, Μηλιά–Σπαρτίνες, όρμος Κλήμα on Περιστέρα, the Μεγάλος Αδελφός shore), while the same act creates the ΕΕΑΧ Περιστέρας, where fishing IS banned. Our layer paints the park whole, i.e. stricter than the act. Check the limits with the park authority.
•The Southern Kynouria/Arcadia diving park: Ν. 4688/2020 establishes underwater parks, but we have not read a spearfishing prohibition inside it in the act — we treat that as NOT PROVEN rather than as confirmed. The park's boundary is not on our map either (the act publishes no coordinates). Ask the Leonidio/Tyros λιμεναρχείο before you go.
•Local bans: on top of the national rules, every port authority issues its own (ΓΚΛ/ΕΚΛ and λιμενάρχης decisions). In the ΛΣ-ΕΛ.ΑΚΤ registry we counted ~163 of them that reach a speargun, across 48 ports — our map does NOT draw them. Check your own port: alieia.hcg.gr/prohibitions/local/local17.php.
•Locally STRICTER than the national rule: Corfu (Kerkyra) — from 01.04 to 31.10 spearfishing is banned within 200 m of the shore, even where nobody is swimming (απόφαση Λ/Χ Κέρκυρας 2141.1/2939/2024, ΦΕΚ Β΄3269/2024). In practice that closes shore entry on Corfu for the season. We read the act in the registry, not in the ΦΕΚ — confirm with the λιμεναρχείο.
•Locally STRICTER: Lefkada — 300 m instead of 200, and not only the speargun: ψαροντούφεκο, nets and longlines are banned within 300 m of those sea areas, beaches and shores of the port district THAT ARE USED BY BATHERS (απόφαση Λ/Χ Λευκάδας 2131.13/1477/2022, in its own words «όπου χρησιμοποιούνται από λουόμενους»). The act ran to 30.09.2022 and we found no extension; an expired act is not proof that the ban is gone. Ask the Lefkada λιμεναρχείο.
•Locally STRICTER: Symi — from 15.06 to 15.09 fishing BY ANY MEANS is banned within 200 m of beach areas and in inhabited coastal areas WHERE BATHERS ARE PRESENT OR GATHER (απόφαση Λ/Χ Σύμης 2131.13/882/2016). Separately, year-round: fishing by any means is banned inside the port and its sea zone, except line/rod fishing from land (ΓΚΛ Σύμης, art. 151, ΦΕΚ 362/Β/2004). The acts were copied from the registry, not checked against the ΦΕΚ.
•Locally: inside the ports of Lavrio and Kea spearfishing is banned across the WHOLE port water, not merely under the 200 m rule; separately, in front of the hotel beaches (ΓΚΛ Λαυρίου, art. 240, ΦΕΚ 460/Β/1978). The act was copied from the registry, not checked against the ΦΕΚ.
•Coming: two new national marine parks are being created (Ionian + South Cyclades, ~27,500 km²). NOT yet in force (ΠΔ under review, mid-2026). Once live — a trawl ban + a seasonal coastal closure 15.04–31.05; in the strict zones spearfishing will be banned. Check before the season.
⛔ Pinna nobilis (πίννα, fan mussel) — full ban on taking/killing (Habitats Dir. 92/43 Annex IV; critically endangered).
Rules change, and the local Λιμεναρχείο (port authority) may impose local restrictions. Before heading out, check the current rules and the declared archaeological zones (ENALIA).
FAQ
Where is the lee in Limnos?
The SW/S coast and Moudros Bay are the main shelter choices in N/NE meltemi.
Is Myrina closed for diving?
The Myrina coast is listed as an archaeological protected marine zone. Avoid it and verify boundaries locally.
Is spearfishing banned in May?
Yes. May is a total spearfishing ban across Greece (ΠΔ 373/1985), including Limnos.
Do you need a licence?
No spearfishing licence has been issued since 2014. Check gov.gr for the current recreational-fisher registry.
What fish are typical?
Sand and seagrass suit tsipoura, lavraki, mullet and octopus; rocky capes add grouper, dentex and sargos.
