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 12:47
Llanes — solo, off the rocks
BORDERLINE
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · calm conditions: swell, wind and visibility all normal
wave 1 mwind 9 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~4 m
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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: 1391 spots across 205 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
Here the tide is both the show and the problem: with four and a half metres of range, at spring low water you walk under the arches dry-footed, and at high water those same arches are full of water and surge. Never put yourself inside an arch on a rising tide.
shelter
A cove wedged between limestone walls west of Llanes: the arches and the outer stacks cut a good part of the NE, but the NW at 330° walks straight in through the mouth and fills the cove with white water. With southerly wind, 150° to 210°, it blows offshore and the inside goes glassy.
conditions
When it comes in clean you get six or seven metres between the arches and the outer blocks. Two things spoil it: the stream that empties onto the beach itself, which runs brown after rain and lays a freshwater layer on the surface, and northerly ground swell stirring the sand in the mouth.
hazard
The stream empties onto the beach itself, and Decreto 25/2006 closes river mouths as well as 500 m around bathing zones; neither line is drawn on any chart, so caution is the only sensible stance here. Inside the caves, incoming surge pushes you hard against bare rock.
access
You drive right down to the cove car park on the road from Nueva; it is the easiest access on this whole stretch of coast. Get in off the sand beside the stream bed and swim out past the stacks. With any sea, the only exit is back onto the sand, never over the ledges of the arches.
Rocky ground with arches and caves; rich grounds, only in calm seas.
With over four metres of range on springs, low water uncovers the slabs at both ends and opens a walking route out to the points; at high water those same slabs sit under a hand's depth of foam. The sensible plan is to get in on the ebb and be out before the top of the flood.
shelter
Andrín sits tucked under the hill, with the points to the east closing off part of the entrance: it is one of the few Llanes coves that works with a moderate NE. The exposed flank runs 310° to 350°, and as soon as the NW settles in the shorebreak crosses the beach from side to side.
conditions
Sand bottom with rock patches towards the edges; the water comes good fast after a couple of flat days, giving four or five metres. Being a small cove, turbidity is slow to flush out: if there was sea the day before, the inside stays dirty even when it is clear further out.
hazard
In season it is buoyed as a bathing zone, and Decreto 25/2006 closes 500 m around it without that circle appearing on any map. Watch out for the galerna too: on this coast a hot, still afternoon can break into a gusting NW in a matter of minutes, with no warning from the shore.
access
You come down from Andrín village along the track, with parking right above the beach and a few steps to the sand. Enter through the middle and work the rocky edges on one side or the other. With ground swell running do not try to exit over the rocks at the east end; come back to the sand.
Semi-sheltered cove to the east; easy entry, good with a low, long swell.
With a Cantabrian range of over four metres the islet changes character: at spring low water you almost reach it along the sand channel, while at high water you have to swim it with the wave washing over the slabs. Check the coefficient before you decide how you are coming back.
shelter
Ballota opens north with the islet standing right in the middle, and that stack splits the wave and throws a little shadow to either side. Even so the 300°-45° sector comes in whole: with the NW at 330° it breaks over the islet and there is not a calm metre left inside.
conditions
Rock on both flanks and sand down the middle: in calm conditions you get six or seven metres tight to the islet, which is exactly where the fish hold. With ground swell the sand lifts and visibility drops to little over one, and the freshwater running off after rain clouds it too.
hazard
A bathing zone in summer, with 500 m closed around it under Decreto 25/2006 and not one line drawn on any map. On the cliff alongside there are bufones: when they are firing water out of the holes in the limestone, that means the sea is working and today is not a day to get in.
access
There is parking above and a short earth path with steps down to the sand, brief but with loose stones underfoot. You enter through the middle of the beach and swim to the islet in a few minutes. With a running swell do not exit at the foot of the stack: the wave rebounds and offers no hold.
Cove with a central islet; rock bottom, entry off the sand, exposed to swell.
The long four-metre-plus Cantabrian range rules here as everywhere else: at low water the flat rock dries out and you can walk it, while at high water the sea reaches the upper cobbles and getting out becomes awkward. On a high coefficient the along-shore current is noticeable.
shelter
A pebble beach at the eastern end of the council area, close to Vidiago, wide open to due north. The 300°-45° sector comes in unfiltered and the NW at 330° makes it unusable; the good days are light southerly wind and under half a metre of sea, with nothing in between.
conditions
Rounded stones and flat rock alternate as soon as you leave the shore, and over that bottom the view runs four to six metres with a flat sea. The problem is the shoreline itself: the shorebreak on the cobbles throws up a cloud of grit that clings to the coast and is slow to clear.
hazard
The Arenillas bufones are on the cliff along this stretch: if they are blowing water, the sea is working and today is not the day. In season the beach is buoyed and 500 m around it are closed under Decreto 25/2006; add the 100 m you must keep from other people's rods and gear.
access
From Vidiago the road drops to a car park beside the beach, and underfoot you get big rounded cobbles that roll under your fins. Enter through the middle on a half-rising tide so you are not dragged across the stones, and come out at the same place, because the edges break badly.
Pebble beach with a mixed rock-and-sand bottom; the breakers hold bass and bream on the eastern Llanes coast.
At spring low water, with over four metres of range, Toró becomes a wide sand flat with the needles standing free and you can walk round almost all of them dry-shod. At high water the beach vanishes against the cliff. That difference decides where you leave your kit and where you plan to exit.
shelter
The Llanes coast faces 350°, almost due north, and the bad sector runs 300° to 45°. Toró is tucked a little between points, so it takes a light NE better than the open beaches, but with the NW at 330° the rock needles start breaking and the cove becomes useless.
conditions
It is a rock-and-sand cove with limestone needles planted in the beach, and that mix clears quickly: with a flat sea you get five or six metres between the blocks. The enemy is suspended sand, because half a metre of shorebreak is enough to turn the whole inner part milky.
hazard
In summer it is buoyed and lifeguarded: Decreto 25/2006 closes 500 m around bathing zones and that circle appears on no chart at all. Llanes harbour is barely a kilometre to the west, its waters closed as well, and from January to April pollack must be released alive.
access
Park up on the open ground above the cove and go down the ramp and steps to the sand; it is one of the easiest accesses in eastern Asturias. Get in through the middle, beside the needles, and avoid exiting over the slabs on the eastern side when northerly ground swell is coming in.
Rocky cove east of Llanes; rock with sand, sea bream and sea bass, exposed to the NW.
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».
✓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 · Llanes
Spearfishing in Llanes: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-09 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Spearfishing in Llanes is Cantabrian cove work, not sheltered ría fishing. The source lists Playa de Toró, Ballota, Cuevas del Mar, Andrín and Buelna, with rock, sand or pebble bottoms and repeated exposure to swell or NW sea. There is no daily visibility feed or buoy, only a harbour webcam. Legally, do not use Galicia PE405A here: Asturias issues the licence through the Principado, and spearfishing is included in the maritime licence.
TL;DR
Llanes is exposed Cantabrian shore: short coves, rock, sand and pebble, with N to NW as the hard sector in the source.
The listed places are Playa de Toró, Ballota, Cuevas del Mar, Andrín and Buelna; no safety ratings are supplied.
Asturias issues the licence through the Principado, with spearfishing included in the maritime licence.
Where can you spearfish in Llanes?
The Llanes list is compact but exposed. Toró is rock and sand with bass and bream, open to NW. Ballota has a central islet, rock bottom and sand entry, but takes swell. Cuevas del Mar needs calm sea. Andrín has easy entry and works with low, long swell. Buelna is pebble shore with mixed rock and sand.
Spot
Type
Depth
Level
Access
Notes
Playa de Toró
Rocky cove with sand
Rock and sand by the cove
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-
East of Llanes, with bream and sea bass in the source text. Exposed to the NW.
Playa de Ballota
Cove with central islet
Rock bottom
-
From sand
Rock bottom and sand entry. The source marks it exposed to swell.
Cuevas del Mar (Nueva)
Rock with arches and caves
Rocky bottom
-
-
Rich ground in the source, but only in calm seas.
Playa de Andrín
Semi-sheltered cove
Cove rock and sand
-
Easy entry
Eastern cove, good with a low, long swell. The source says easy entry, not beginner level.
✓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.
✓Asturias: the spearfishing licence is issued by the Principado de Asturias — spearfishing is part of the maritime licence (www62.asturias.es).
✓Asturias: the spearfishing licence authorises 5 kg of fish taken exclusively on a breath hold, with no underwater breathing apparatus of any kind (Decreto 25/2006, art. 5.2); it takes an official medical fitness certificate and accident + civil-liability insurance (art. 6.2), and it lasts two years (art. 7). The cap is 5 kg per licence per day, the excess of the biggest fish not counted (art. 8.1). Orto to ocaso only (art. 9). Barred within 100 m of fixed or floating gear, of anglers' rods and of fishing vessels, within 500 m of bathing zones, in port areas, in river mouths (rías excepted) and over marine-culture areas (art. 12.2). Buoy red, orange or yellow; the gun is unloaded entering and leaving the water (art. 12.3).
⛔ 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.
-
-
Breakers hold sea bass and bream on the eastern Llanes coast.
What fish can you spearfish in Llanes?
The Llanes spot text names sea bass and bream, especially at Toró and Buelna. The Cantabrian-NW species list also includes European seabass, gilthead seabream, salema, bogue, black seabream, grey mullet, red porgy, striped red mullet, common octopus, conger and pollack. Legal sizes in the source include seabass at 42 cm, gilthead bream at 19 cm and octopus at 1 kg. Pollack has a recreational closure from 1 January to 30 April.
When is the best time to spearfish in the Cantabrian Sea?
The source gives no month window for Llanes. It gives Cantabrian tide regime, no upwelling coast, worst NW direction and a bad N to NW sector. Use those as the filter: Cuevas del Mar only in calm seas, Ballota with caution in swell, and Andrín when the swell is low and long. A named month is less useful than the sea state in this dataset.
How is the water visibility in Llanes today?
The source has no daily visibility value and no local buoy. It does include a live camera at Puerto de Llanes, which helps read the surface and harbour, not the water under Toró or Ballota. The Natura 2000 note for Ría de Ribadesella-Ría de Tinamayor is advisory: it says to check local spearfishing rules, not that the site is a ban.
Do I need a license to spearfish in Asturias?
Yes. The Asturias item says the Principado de Asturias issues the licence and that spearfishing is part of the maritime licence, with www62.asturias.es as the reference. National Spanish rules still apply: the autonomous community issues the licence, freediving only, no scuba, daylight only, visible buoy within 25 m, and 300 m from working professional fishing vessels. Check the Principado for details not present in the source.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Llanes?
The source lists Playa de Toró, Playa de Ballota, Cuevas del Mar, Playa de Andrín and Playa de Buelna. Andrín has easy entry, Ballota enters from sand, and Cuevas del Mar needs calm sea.
What fish can you spearfish in Llanes?
The spot text names sea bass and bream. The Cantabrian-NW list also includes gilthead bream, salema, black seabream, grey mullet, red porgy, red mullet, octopus, conger and pollack.
How is the water visibility in Llanes today?
The source has no daily visibility reading and no buoy. It has a harbour webcam for surface checks. For the coves, filter by swell and N to NW exposure.
Do I need a license to spearfish in Asturias?
Yes. Asturias issues the licence through the Principado, and spearfishing is included in the maritime licence. Use the Asturias source, not Galicia PE405A.
Is scuba spearfishing allowed in Spain?
No. The national rule in the source says spearfishing is freediving only. Scuba is banned under RD 347/2011.
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