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

spearo.app / Spain / Ondarroa
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◈Ondarroa · Spain
2.5
💧 Water should clear by Thursday (~5d) — tentative (distant windows uncertain)
visibility~1m

Nottoday

Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 💧 Water should clear by Thursday (~5d) — tentative (distant windows uncertain)

Sources: AEMET/MeteoAlarm · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 20:55

Sources & confidence

Sources
AEMET/MeteoAlarm · buoys · 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 zones

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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Spots in Spain

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Nearby towns

  • Mutriku
  • Deba
  • Lekeitio
  • Zarautz
  • Orio

Cantabrian coast

  • Bermeo
  • Getxo (Bilbao)
  • Hondarribia
  • Castro Urdiales
  • Santander
  • Llanes
  • Gijón

Catalonia

  • L'Ametlla de Mar
  • Tarragona
  • Sitges
  • Barcelona
  • Arenys de Mar
  • Tossa de Mar
  • Roses
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spearo.app · a private marine instrument · Ondarroa · 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
no dataupdated 20:55
Exposed coast — Paulo Atxe & Ametzela — solo, off the rocks
DON'T GO
don't go · wave 2.1 m (occasionally up to ~4.2 m)
wave 2.1 mwind 12, gusts 25 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~1 m
today, best window 06:00–09:00
fish · Visibility 1 m · Water 17.9°C
confidence low · verdict for the selected day
Best window · next 3 days

Next 3 days — not divable: wave up to 2.2 m

💧 Water should clear by Thursday (~5d) — tentative (distant windows uncertain)

Tell me when it's on

Just your email — nothing else needed.

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.

Sunday · today2026-10-25
08:35–19:11 · full moon
▲ 04:00▼ 10:00▲ 16:00▼ 22:00mid-range tides · 3.7 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide-2.11 m
Wave2.26 m
Wind6 km/h
Water18 °C
fish activity: moon overhead 00:50 · high · moonset 07:43 · moderate · moon underfoot 13:10 · high · moonrise 18:29 · moderate
Conditions window06:00–09:00
don't go fish
Hs 2.08 m · roughperiod 9.2 swind 12→25surge 37.3viz 1 m
2.08 mrough · up to ~4.16 · 317° at an angle
9.2 sswell moderate
12→25gusts 25 km/h
37.3pounding the rocks
0.14m/s
1 mrecent swell
17.9°C5 mm + hood
▼10:00tide falling
Atmosphere45 kmlandmarks visible
moderatemoonset
  • wave 2.1 m (occasionally up to ~4.2 m)
  • swell period 9 s
  • ebb — weaker inshore
confidence lowtwilight
Open the seafloor map with entry points →

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.

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 →
Punta de ArrigorriCoast — Ondarroa
no data
window
—
tide
Cantabrian regime, spring range up to 4.5 m. The corridors between the boulders only hold enough water above half-tide.
shelter
Sheltered behind the point on a westerly; on a NW it breaks over the top and the water fills with suspended sand.
conditions
Shallow and weedy: 4-6 m of visibility on a good day, and the Artibai spoils it with every spate.
hazard
The port area starts 64 m to the south: it is the tightest margin in the whole wave and it is worth looking at the map before swimming towards the town. Arrigorri is 340 m away. Inshore fleet in and out; a marker buoy is compulsory. port water: art. 18.2.2 of Decreto 198/2000 closes ports, docks, anchorages and channels all year censused bathing zone — from 1 Jun to 30 Sep art. 14.3 of Decreto 198/2000 bars spearfishing inside it and within 250 m
access
From the Arrigorri promenade over the rocks to the north, about 300 m on foot and in off the low slab.

The north end of the «red rocks», already outside the bathing zone and the port area; red slab, boulders and kelp from 3 to 9 m.

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
Open the seafloor map →
Reference

What's in season,
what the law says.

Minimum sizes by caladero (in the table below). Season depends on the species and place.

In season now
  • European seabass
    Dicentrarchus labrax · Cantabrian & NW · RD 347/2011 art. 4 bis
  • gilthead seabream
    Sparus aurata · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • salema / saupe
    Sarpa salpa · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
    ⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
  • bogue
    Boops boops · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • black seabream
    Spondyliosoma cantharus · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • grey mullet
    Mugil / Chelon spp. · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • red porgy
    Pagrus pagrus · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • L'Escala
  • Palamós
  • Levante

    • Peñíscola
    • Benicàssim
    • Burriana
    • Valencia
    • Cullera
    • Dénia
    • Xàbia
    • Benidorm
    • Santa Pola

    Galicia

    • Viveiro
    • A Coruña
    • Sanxenxo
    • O Grove
    • Vigo
    • Muros
    • Ribeira
    • Baiona

    Balearics

    • Sant Antoni (Ibiza)
    • Palma
    • Alcúdia
    • Formentera
    • Ciutadella

    Murcia

    • Cartagena
    • Cabo de Palos

    All 73 spots → · spearo.app — All countries

    Pasaia buoy: wave 3.2 m · 2 h ago(model: 2.0 m)

    Google Maps
    Saturraran — flanco esteCoast — Ondarroa
    no data
    window
    —
    tide
    Cantabrian regime, spring range up to 4.5 m. Over the shoal the range changes the break entirely: what is a slick at high water breaks at low.
    shelter
    The stacks cut the west and leave a slick against the wall; on a NW nothing is left.
    conditions
    Flysch wall from 3 to 12 m with gullies square to the shore; 5-7 m of visibility on a land wind.
    hazard
    Saturraran is 391 m west: outside the 250 m of art. 14.3, and the mark moved here from inside the zone precisely to leave the beach to the swimmers. Ondarroa harbour is 891 m away. The wall has no intermediate exits. censused bathing zone — from 1 Jun to 30 Sep art. 14.3 of Decreto 198/2000 bars spearfishing inside it and within 250 m
    access
    From the Saturraran car park along the shore eastward at low water, about 500 m over boulders.

    Flysch and sea stacks east of Saturraran beach, already in Mutriku's parish but a walk from Ondarroa; wall, narrow gullies and sea bream, 391 m clear of the bathing zone.

    Google Maps
    AmetzelaExposed coast — Paulo Atxe & Ametzela
    no data
    window
    —
    tide
    Cantabrian regime, spring range up to 4.5 m. At low water the red slab is out of the sea and you enter 100 m further north.
    shelter
    The cove is tucked in and takes a little more sea than the neighbouring points, but a NW shuts it all the same.
    conditions
    Rock patches on both sides of the cove, 3-10 m; the sand in the middle clouds up with any swell.
    hazard
    No mapped zone nearby: Karraspio 2.6 km away and Lekeitio harbour 3.2 km. Mind the rolling cobbles at the entry and the undertow when a northerly sea comes in.
    access
    Track from the farmstead and a last 20 m down stone steps to the cobbles.

    Cobble cove under the cliff, halfway to Lekeitio; mixed sand-and-rock bottom, very few people and no mapped zone within 2.6 km.

    Google Maps
    Paulo Atxe MuturraExposed coast — Paulo Atxe & Ametzela
    no data
    window
    —
    tide
    Cantabrian regime, spring range up to 4.5 m. With the Lea bar emptying, the water clouds here before anywhere else in the bay.
    shelter
    A jutting point with nothing in front: it only goes on a southerly and a groundswell under a metre.
    conditions
    Clean boulder-and-sand bottom from 6 to 15 m; little fishing pressure and 6-9 m of visibility.
    hazard
    No mapped zone nearby. The danger is the access: an exposed scramble down the cliff, no signal, nobody in sight, and the exit is the same climb as the entry.
    access
    On foot from Berriatua along the cliff path, 40 minutes, and a 15 m rock scramble down.

    Rocky point to the west with no road access; reached along the cliff top, and almost never anyone there. 2.9 km from the harbour and 3.2 km from the bathing zone.

    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.

  • striped red mullet
    Mullus surmuletus · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • common octopus
    Octopus vulgaris · Cantabrian & NW · 1 kg
    Talla por PESO: mín. 1 kg (RD 560/1995, todos los anexos). No coger hembras con huevos.
  • European conger
    Conger conger · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • pollack
    Pollachius pollachius · Cantabrian & NW · closed 1 Jan–30 Apr
    Talla operativa 42 cm; máx. 2 ejemplares/día (medida recreativa anual de la UE, Reg. 2025/202). ⚠️ Atlantic: recreational CLOSED 1 Jan–30 Apr (catch-and-release).
  • 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).
    • ✓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.
    • ✓Basque Country: the spearfishing licence is issued by the Basque Government — Gobierno Vasco (Eusko Jaurlaritza): Decreto 198/2000, platform, spearfishing valid 1 year.
    • ✓Basque Country: spearfishing needs a SEPARATE licence (Decreto 198/2000, art. 4); it takes being 16, an official sports medical certificate of fitness for this very activity, and accident + civil-liability insurance (art. 7.3). The cap is 5 kg (art. 12.1). Barred within 250 m of properly delimited bathing or watersport areas (art. 14.3); orto to ocaso only (art. 16). Ports, docks, habitual anchorages, navigation channels and vessel-traffic zones are closed; and a biotope, a special-protection zone or an artificial reef closes spearfishing only when ITS OWN norm says so (art. 18).
    • ⛔ 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.

    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.

    FAQ — spearfishing in Ondarroa

    Where can I spearfish in Ondarroa?

    Ondarroa has rock entry points such as Punta de Arrigorri, Saturraran — flanco este and Paulo Atxe Muturra. Ondarroa is a working port first, with a big fleet through the Artibai mouth, and the harbour is closed to spearfishing. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.

    When is the best season in Ondarroa?

    Summer and early autumn are the windows — in winter the Bay of Biscay swell shuts the coast down. Tides are large (4 m+) and set up current, so pick a small-sea day with the tide in your favour.

    How cold is the water in Ondarroa?

    ~14–22 °C: cool, but it warms up in the summer window. A 5 mm suit at peak summer, 7 mm with a hood the rest of the year.

    Is Ondarroa good for a beginner?

    Demanding: strong Biscay swell, big tides and exposed rock entries. It's for those who can already read the sea and pick the window well — not a coast to start on.

    Do I need a licence in Ondarroa?

    Yes — in Ondarroa you need a recreational sea-fishing licence (issued by the autonomous community); breath-hold only (no scuba), with a marker buoy and no night diving. See the guide.

    Full guide: spearfishing in Spain →
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