Cala Estreta / Cala SeniàPalamós
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Rocky coves toward Palafrugell; rich grounds, exposed to E swell.
Google MapsPalamós spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras
5.3
wave 0.5 m head-on
visibility4m
Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
Sources: IPMA · NDBC · Copernicus — high confidence · data 14:46
Sources & confidence
- Sources
- IPMA · NDBC buoys · Copernicus Marine
- Method
- Model consensus, read per window
- Freshness
- Re-read every hour, per coast
Compiled by the spearo sea-state engine
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 — forced red; the window is closed after dark.
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
Surface
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
spearo.app
calmupdated 14:46
Palamós — solo, off the rocks
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site · northerly wind picks up after midday
wave 0.5 m head-onwind 10, gusts 25 km/hvisibility ~6 mwindow 12:00–21:00
today, best window 18:00–21:00
fish · Visibility 6 m · Water 26.3°C
confidence medium · 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.
Wednesday · today2026-07-22
06:31–21:16 · first quarter
▲ 02:00▼ 10:00▼ 15:00▲ 16:00▼ 17:00▲ 18:00▼ 22:00 · 0.1 m
Hours (06→20)
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide-0.47 m
Wave0.34 m
Wind7 km/h
Water26 °C
fish activity: moonset 00:45 · moderate · moon underfoot 08:10 · high · moonrise 15:36 · moderate · moon overhead 20:20 · high
Conditions window12:00–15:00
caution — solo off the rocks is risky, check on site fish
Hs 0.66 mperiod 4.6 s head-onwind 16→34surge 0.9viz 3 m
0.66 mup to ~1.32 · 40° head-on
4.6 sswell moderate
16→34gusts 34 km/h
0.9weak surge
0.11m/s
3 mrecent swell
26.2°C5 mm + hood
▼15:00tide turn near
Atmosphere43 kmlandmarks visible
lowoff the lunar peaks
- steep wind-wave — choppy surface, careful on entry
- strong wind 16 km/h, gusts 34 — caution
confidence mediumday
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: 1152 spots across 189 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
See all spotsThe 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
Cala S'AlguerPalamós
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Rocky cove south of Palamós; drop-offs and boulders, sea bream and gilthead, exposed to the easterly.
Google MapsLa Fosca / Illa del CastellPalamós
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Islet and rocky ground at La Fosca; easy entry off the sand, semi-exposed.
Google MapsPlatja de Castell (Cap de Planes)Palamós
borderlineexposed head-on to the swell today (city-level)
- window
- tide
- shelter
- hazard
- access
Rocky ground at Cap de Planes; rock and Posidonia, moderately exposed to the E.
Google MapsSOLO 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.
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».
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
- gilthead seabream
- white seabream
- two-banded seabream
- sharpsnout seabream
- salema / saupe⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
- bogue
- striped seabream
- grey mullet
- red porgy
- striped red mullet
- brown meagre / corbCataluña: corball 30 cm, máx. 2 ejemplares/día — Resolució ARP/3310/2025.
- dusky grouperSin prohibición estatal de captura (NO está en el Catálogo Español, RD 139/2011). Cataluña: 50 cm, máx. 2 ejemplares/día — Resolució ARP/3310/2025.
- common octopusTalla por PESO: mín. 1 kg (RD 560/1995, todos los anexos). No coger hembras con huevos. Cataluña: veda del pulpo de roca aprox. jul–sep, por zonas — Resolució ARP/3310/2025.
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.
- ✓Spearfishing banned in marine reserves/protected zones (without a special permit), in ports and at busy beaches/bathing areas. The exact distance to bathing zones is set by the autonomous community.
- ✓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 art. 38.3; Murcia; Galicia; Basque Country). Protected species have per-piece quotas.
- ✓Catalonia: the «Llicència de pesca recreativa subaquàtica» (recreational spearfishing) is issued by the Generalitat de Catalunya — applied for at tramits.gencat.cat.
- ✓Bans: Illes Medes, Ses Negres (Begur), parts of Cap de Creus — spearfishing banned (see zones).
- ⛔ Seahorses (Hippocampus) — protected (RPE).
- ⛔ Catalonia: sharks and rays (elasmobranchs) — capture PROHIBITED (Resolució ARP/3310/2025).
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.
Spearfishing in Palamós: spots, seasons and rules
Palamós is a rocky Costa Brava shore-entry setup with one clear rule: easterly sea controls the day. La Fosca / Illa del Castell is the easiest entry from sand. Cala S'Alguer, Cap de Planes and Cala Estreta are richer rocky options but more exposed to Llevant and east swell. The legal frame is Catalonia plus Mediterranean species sizes.
TL;DR
- Start with La Fosca if you need the easiest access and a quick visibility check.
- Avoid Llevant and east swell, especially for Cala S'Alguer and Cala Estreta.
- Use the Catalan underwater recreational licence and follow Mediterranean minimum sizes.
Best legal spearfishing spots near Palamós
These shore-entry zones should only be used with settled sea, a visible buoy and confirmed local limits.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Fosca / Illa del Castell | Islet and rocky ground at La Fosca | Low rock and sand | Careful beginner | Easy shore entry | Easy sand entry to islet and rocky ground. Small east swell. Catalan licence required. |
| Platja de Castell | Rocky ground at Cap de Planes | Rock and Posidonia edges | Intermediate | Shore entry with a clear exit route | Rock and Posidonia at Cap de Planes. Moderate east exposure. Mediterranean sizes apply. |
| Cala S'Alguer | Rocky cove south of Palamós | Rock ledges and drop-offs | Intermediate | From the cove, away from bathing areas | Rocky cove with boulders, sargo and gilthead. Avoid Llevant. No protected species. |
| Cala Estreta / Cala Senià | Rocky coves toward Palafrugell | Shore rock in shallow water | Intermediate | From the cove, away from bathing areas | Rich rocky coves toward Palafrugell. Exposed to east swell. Check reserve limits. |
Conditions and season essentials
The local coast faces east. The bad sector is 45 to 150 degrees, with the worst direction around 95 degrees, so northeast, east and southeast sea can all make the rocky entries uncomfortable. No NDBC buoy is listed, but the Marina Palamós webcams show the harbour mouth and the view toward Illes Formigues. La Fosca is the easier semi-exposed sand entry. Platja de Castell has rock and Posidonia. Cala S'Alguer holds boulders and bream but dislikes Llevant. Cala Estreta / Cala Senià has richer ground and stronger exposure to east swell.
FAQ
What is the easiest Palamós entry?
La Fosca / Illa del Castell, because it has easy sand access.
What wind is worst?
Llevant and other easterly sea states.
What licence applies?
Catalonia’s Llicència de pesca recreativa subaquàtica.
What is the local caladero?
Mediterranean.
Are sharks and rays legal catch?
No. Catalonia lists elasmobranchs as prohibited catch.
Sources
Nearby towns
Coming soon
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