Ortona · Italy

8.0

wave 0.4 m

visibility3m

Dive today — wave, wind and visibility.

Sources: MeteoAlarm · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 21:20

Sources & confidence

Sources: 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.

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.
Wind & gusts: Speed and gusts, hour by hour — wind speed and an onshore push chop the surface and cut visibility.
Tide phase: Timing and range of the tide, calibrated per coast — big spring tides pull the verdict toward caution.
Water temperature: Sea-surface temperature — sharply cold water vetoes a green verdict.
Currents & outflow: Direction and drift of the current — it pushes you, and it drags turbid coastal water across where you dive.
Rain runoff & air clarity: Rain muddies the water inshore through land runoff, while fog and haze cut visibility at the surface.
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.

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MeteoAlarm no dataupdated 21:20

Ortona — solo, off the rocks

BEST WINDOW

best weather window · solo, stay careful, run the checklist · calm conditions: swell, wind and visibility all normal

wave 0.4 mwind 7 km/hvisibility ~3 mwindow 18:00–21:00

today, best window 18:00–21:00

fish · Visibility 3 m · Water 21°C

confidence high · verdict for the selected day

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

07:27–18:05 · full moon

▲ 04:00▼ 10:00▲ 14:00▼ 21:00 · 0.4 m

Hours (06→20)

Day's trends

Tide-0.52 m

Wave0.32 m

Wind7 km/h

Water21 °C

fish activity: moonset 06:31 · moderate · moon underfoot 12:00 · high · moonrise 17:22 · moderate · moon overhead 00:00 · high

Conditions window06:00–09:00

don't go fish

Hs 0.78 m · slightperiod 4.1 swind 17→40surge 0.9viz 1 m

0.78 mslight · up to ~1.56 · 351° at an angle

4.1 sswell moderate

17→40gusts 40 km/h

0.9weak surge

0.22m/s

1 mrecent swell

20.9°C5 mm + hood

▼10:00tide falling

Atmosphere39 kmlandmarks visible

moderatemoonset

steep wind-wave — choppy surface, careful on entry
wind 17 km/h, gusts to 40 — caution
dawn/dusk

confidence lowtwilight

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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

Lido RiccioOrtona

borderline

Ultra · subscribers

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: —

The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.

Open in the app

Punta AcquabellaOrtona

borderline

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: With ten metres of water 1200 m from the shore, the band where you meet the local orders is all of it right here. The catch limit is 5 kg per person per day and the catch may not be sold. At Ortona the season conditions the law more than it conditions the sea. The bathing season narrows the options: out of season the stretch is whole again.
tide: In a hard Grecale the level rises more than any spring tide manages. In practice the tide does not enter the decision here: the wind of the last few hours does. The ten-metre line, 1200 m offshore, does not move with the level: it moves with the swell. At Ortona the tide calendar is no substitute for reading the sea.
shelter: The shore in front of the mark faces northeast, about 26°, so everything arriving from that sector gets in unobstructed. On the point at Ortona it is the flank that gives you the shelter, not the general lie of the coast. With Grecale building, shorten the session instead of lengthening the route. With leftover swell the surface lies: watch the sets from land for a couple of minutes before deciding.
conditions: If you cannot see the bottom 90 m out, the day is over before it starts. The distance to twenty metres, 4400 m, makes chasing depth pointless: work the structures close in instead. By 1200 m from the shore you already know whether it is worth going on. At Ortona it pays to come out feeling you stopped early.
hazard: The marker has to follow you even when you are working 1200 m from the shore: 50 m from the vertical below it is the legal maximum. On a headland the risk is not the depth but the swell that comes round the corner without warning. Tell somebody ashore where you are getting in and when you expect to be out. At Ortona floating lines are seen late: keep an eye above you as well.
access: The mark is 110 m from the coastline and ten metres of water runs 1200 m out. You get in where you can get out, and on a point that rule counts double. At Ortona the best place is the one you can leave without hurrying. The best entry is the one you can repeat when you are tired.

Cliff with a boulder scree at its foot, the most continuous rocky ground around. Sea bream, saddled bream, striped bream. Shallow: you work 3-7 m.

Google Maps

Punta LongaOrtona

borderline

Pro · subscribers

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: —

The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.

Open in the app

Ripari di GiobbeOrtona

borderline

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: DPR 1639/1968 dates from 1968 and is still the reference text: it is not a historical detail. At Ortona as anywhere else, the hours of the session are the hours of the sun. Note the hour you will come out before you get in: from 110 m of shore the way back always looks shorter than it is. With Grecale forecast to strengthen it pays to go earlier rather than to stay longer.
tide: Even at springs the band out to five metres stays 440 m wide: the level does not change the route. If anything changes the level at Ortona, it is pressure and wind, not the moon. The way back against the current is tested at the start and not at the end. In a hard Grecale the water piles up inshore and drains away sideways.
shelter: In Tramontana or Levante the swell arrives across and you can still work by staying tight to the rock. In a bay like this the shelter is a few tens of metres wide, tucked against the windward point rather than in the middle of the arc, and in a hard Grecale not even that. With wind from the northeast building, the window shuts fast: plan the way back with margin. At Ortona the difference between a bad day and a good one is a hundred metres of coast, not an hour of waiting.
conditions: A slope this gentle, twenty metres at 3300 m, holds sand in suspension long after the swell. With 20 m reached about 3300 m out, the limit of the day is set by your breath and not by the distance. At Ortona the good days are few and have to be taken when they come. On doubtful days get in short and extend only if the water holds.
hazard: The surface marker is compulsory: a float with a red flag and a white diagonal stripe, visible at 300 m, and you may not go more than 50 m from the vertical below it. With Grecale into the mouth of the bay the water leaves through the middle and comes back along the sides: keep it in mind for the return. If you are alone, halve everything: depth, times and distance from shore. At Ortona the conditions change faster than the forecast does.
access: At Ortona the entry at the head of the cove is the one that holds up best even in a made-up sea. The mark stands off the shore by about 110 m: here the access starts with a crossing. Fix a landmark ashore in your head: from out there the coast changes face. With Grecale strengthening the exit is brought forward, not discussed.

Pebble cove closed by two points, the most sheltered spot in Ortona with a southerly. Scattered boulders down to 5-6 m; sea bream and the odd conger.

Scogliera del porto di OrtonaOrtona

borderline

Pro · subscribers

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: —

The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.

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Torre Mucchia / Punta FerruccioOrtona

borderline

exposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)

window: On a shore oriented at 342° the usable light ends before the legal hour, which stays the hour of the sun. The 500 m from used beaches is measured from the water's edge, and here the shore is 100 m from the mark: in bathing season do the arithmetic before getting in. Plan the way back while the light is still good: coming out over rock in the dark is another thing entirely. At Ortona it is better to know the prohibition than to discover it from a fine.
tide: The current you will find towards the north will nearly always be wind-driven and not tidal. The level barely moves: the 10 m contour stays 360 m from the shore at any hour of the day. The way back, 50 m to the five-metre band, is decided beforehand and not on the way. A surge pushed by Tramontana can raise the level more than the tide itself.
shelter: There is no general shelter here: there is a flank that holds in Tramontana and one that does not, and they swap as the sea turns. The good sector is the one opposite the opening: from the south the water stays still even in a steady blow. Dead swell from the north arrives under a clear sky and no wind at all. At Ortona whoever gets in first checks, whoever gets in out of habit is trusting yesterday.
conditions: In poor clarity at Ortona it pays to work short and close to the bottom instead of heading out. Depth does not come to you here: out to 360 m from the shore you are in a bare ten metres. The best water nearly always arrives from offshore on a light Ostro. With Tramontana strengthening, the good window closes without warning.
hazard: The 500 m from used beaches starts at the water's edge, which is 100 m from here: in summer it is the first calculation to make. The current running over the point is stronger than at the sides, and you meet it on the way out more than on the way in. At 100 m from the shore no emergency sorts itself out: come out at the first sign. With Tramontana building, the window shuts sooner than the forecast says.
access: On a point you get in from the lee flank, never off the exposed tip. Between the coast and the mark there are 100 m of water, to be counted twice, out and back. From the entry point to the shore there are 100 m, and they are the metres that weigh most on the return. At Ortona the accesses change with the bathing season.

First rocky spur north of Ortona: boulders and pebbles under the tower, shallow bottom. Sea bream, striped bream, the odd sea bass. Bora head-on, murky after river spates.

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.

What's in season,
what the law says.

In season now

European seabass
<4 m · — · dawn/dusk
min. 25 cm · legal target
Gilthead seabream
1–4 m · over sand/weed · dawn
min. 20 cm · legal target
White seabream
1–5 m · in the surf on the reef · dawn
min. 23 cm · legal target
Two-banded seabream
1–8 m · — · dawn
min. 18 cm · legal target
Sharpsnout seabream
2–10 m · — · dawn
min. 18 cm · legal target
Annular seabream
0–5 m · — · daytime
min. 12 cm · legal target
Common dentex
min. 15 cm · Sardinia 30 cm · legal target
Red porgy
min. 18 cm · legal target
Common pandora
min. 18 cm · Sardinia 20 cm · legal target
Axillary seabream
min. 15 cm · Sardinia 18 cm · legal target
Blackspot seabream
min. 33 cm · legal target
Striped seabream
0–5 m · — · dawn
min. 20 cm · legal target
Black seabream
2–6 m · — · —
min. 15 cm · legal target
Bogue
min. 15 cm · legal target
Salema
0–2 m · — · daytime
min. 15 cm · legal target
Dusky grouper
5–40 m · — · daytime
min. 45 cm · RESTRICTED · max 1 grouper/day; BANNED in Sardegna & MPAs
Wreckfish
min. 45 cm · RESTRICTED · max 1 grouper/day; BANNED in Sardegna & MPAs
Brown meagre
2–15 m · — · twilight
min. 20 cm · RESTRICTED · protected in several MPAs · (verify against the norm in force)
Greater amberjack
min. 15 cm · Sardinia 60 cm · legal target · (verify against the norm in force)
Leerfish
min. 15 cm · Sardinia 60 cm · legal target
Grey mullet
0–2 m · — · —
min. 20 cm · Sardinia 25 cm · legal target
Red scorpionfish
3–20 m · — · daytime
min. 15 cm · legal target
Moray eel
1–15 m · — · twilight
min. 25 cm · Sardinia 60 cm · legal target
European conger
2–25 m · — · night
min. 25 cm · Sardinia 50 cm · legal target
Wrasse
min. 15 cm · legal target
Red mullet
min. 11 cm · legal target
Atlantic bonito
min. 25 cm · legal target
Common octopus
1–6 m · — · twilight
min. 450 g · legal target
Cuttlefish
legal target · (verify against the norm in force)

Law

✓NO paid licence, but a free MASAF REGISTRATION is mandatory (recreational sea-fishing declaration, online via SIAN/SPID, annual) — it is not a «licence».
✓Free-diving only: scuba/rebreather/hookah BANNED (art. 128-bis DPR 1639/68). The 16+ rule comes from a different act — D.Lgs 4/2012, art. 6 c. 5; handing a speargun to an under-16 is an offence (art. 13-octies c. 3 b, as replaced by L. 75/2026).
✓Night prohibited: spearfishing only from dawn to sunset (art. 129e DPR 1639/68).
✓Distances (art. 129 DPR 1639/68): ≥500 m from beaches with bathers; ≥100 m from fixed gear/set nets and from vessels anchored outside ports.
✓Buoy MANDATORY (art. 130 DPR 1639/68): float with a red flag bearing a white diagonal stripe, visible ≥300 m; the diver stays within 50 m of the buoy/support boat.
✓The speargun may not be kept armed out of the water (art. 131 DPR 1639/68) — load only when submerged.
✓The spearfisher may NOT gather corals, crustaceans or molluscs — the second paragraph of the same article (art. 128-bis DPR 1639/68; the same rule in D.M. 249/1987, art. 2). BUT cephalopods are EXCLUDED: octopus, cuttlefish and squid may be taken — the exception is kept in terms by the official guidance (circolare 6227201 of 23.07.1987). Mussels — up to 3 kg per person per day, but only with the Capo del Compartimento Marittimo's authorisation. The 5 kg daily cap counts EVERYTHING taken that day (D.Lgs 4/2012, art. 13-octies c. 4, as replaced by L. 75/2026).
✓You MAY carry a speargun and a breathing apparatus on the same boat — but at most ONE cylinder of up to 10 L per vessel, and using it to fish is prohibited (art. 128-ter DPR 1639/68). While you are down, at least one person must stay aboard ready to intervene, and there must be a rope long enough to recover the diver.
✓Sale of recreational catch is PROHIBITED (EU control regime, Reg. CE 1224/2009).
✓The 5 kg/person daily cap IS in force and carries a fine: €500–3 000 up to 10 kg, €2 000–12 000 up to 50 kg, €12 000–50 000 above (D.Lgs 4/2012, art. 13-octies c. 4, as replaced by Law 21 Apr 2026 no. 75). Exception: a single fish heavier than 5 kg. Recovery-plan species and bluefin tuna: +1/3 (c. 5).

⛔ Date mussels (Lithophaga lithophaga) — TOTAL BAN: fishing, possession, transport, sale (D.M. 16/10/1998; EU-protected). Never touch.

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 Ortona

Where can I spearfish in Ortona?

Ortona has rock entry points such as Torre Mucchia / Punta Ferruccio, Ripari di Giobbe and Punta Acquabella. The start of the rocky Abruzzo coast: boulders under Torre Mucchia, a cliff with scree at Punta Acquabella, a pebble cove at Ripari di Giobbe sheltered from the south. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.

When is the best season in Ortona?

Summer mostly, and from Ortona southwards: to the north (Giulianova, Roseto, Pescara) it is sand and river plumes. On the Costa dei Trabocchi the scirocco (SE) kills visibility within hours, an offshore wind (W–NW) reopens it. In summer the 500 m bathing ban pushes you to dawn and dusk.

How cold is the water in Ortona?

~11–27 °C: a shallow shelf that warms and cools fast. A 3–5 mm suit in summer, 5 mm in the shoulder months, 7 mm in winter. Modest visibility, best in high summer with an offshore wind.

Is Ortona good for a beginner?

Shallow and technically easy (3–8 m), but everything hangs on visibility and picking the day. North of Ortona there is no rock: it is sand. Inside the Torre del Cerrano MPA (Pineto–Silvi) spearfishing is banned — stay out. Fishing-boat traffic and trabocchi: buoy always.

Do I need a licence in Ortona?

No — in Ortona there is no paid licence; a free MASAF declaration is mandatory (the recreational sea-fishing communication, online via SIAN/SPID, renewed each year), which is not a «licence». Breath-hold only (no scuba), with a marker buoy and no selling the catch. See the guide.

Full guide: spearfishing in Italy →

Surface

Windows, hours
and the day's trends.

Spots in Italy

🇮🇹Italy

Nearby towns

Abruzzo

Lazio

Central Adriatic

Apulia

Help us make it better

The water column

A marine instrument,
go / no-go for solo hunting.

The seabed

The forecast is the plan.
The call is on the rock.

Where to get in
off the rocks.

Surfacing

What's in season,
what the law says.

FAQ — spearfishing in Ortona

Campania

Emilia-Romagna

Tuscany

Calabria

Ortona spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility & live cameras

Windows, hours and the day's trends.

Get the go / no-go verdict for Ortona by email

Spots in Italy

🇮🇹Italy

Nearby towns

Abruzzo

Lazio

Central Adriatic

Apulia

Help us make it better

A marine instrument, go / no-go for solo hunting.

The forecast is the plan.The call is on the rock.

Where to get in off the rocks.

What's in season, what the law says.

FAQ — spearfishing in Ortona

Campania

Emilia-Romagna

Tuscany

Calabria

Windows, hours
and the day's trends.

A marine instrument,
go / no-go for solo hunting.

The forecast is the plan.
The call is on the rock.

Where to get in
off the rocks.

What's in season,
what the law says.