🌫 Murky all week after the storm — the water isn't settling
visibility~2m
Nottoday
Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 🌫 Murky all week after the storm — the water isn't settling
Sources:IPMA · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus — high confidence · data 02:31
Sources & confidence
Sources
IPMA · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus
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
calmupdated 02:31
Porto Moniz — solo, off the rocks
DON'T GO
don't go · wave 1.8 m (occasionally up to ~3.6 m)
wave 1.8 mwind 8 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~2 m
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.
Ribeira da Janela isletsRibeira da Janela river mouth / sea stacks · Ilhéus da Ribeira da Janela
dangerous
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Land-scout only in the calmest part of summer; only enter after seeing flat conditions on site yourself.
tide
High tide softens the shorebreak on the pebble entry; at low tide slippery algae rock and the reef are exposed.
shelter
Almost no shelter: open black-pebble beach facing N/NW straight into Atlantic groundswell; the islets 200 m out give only a tiny lee.
conditions
Only on rare flat-calm days with minimal N/NW swell and S/SW (offshore) wind. Otherwise dangerous water to dive.
hazard
A documented DANGEROUS reef surf spot ('Madona'): a powerful left over rock, dangerous entry and exit, shorebreak on the sharp pebble/boulder entry, and currents around the islets. Solo, this is high risk.
access
~2 km east of Porto Moniz on the EN101 toward Seixal; free parking by the beach, down rock-cut steps to the black pebble shore.
Spectacular reefs and stacks, but this is a surf reef, not a friendly entry — scout from land first; don't dive solo without a local guide.
Porto Moniz Natural Pools (main complex)Town / main pool complex · Piscinas Naturais do Porto Moniz
dangerous
⛔ Banned here
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Early weekday morning before the crowds and afternoon breeze; best season is summer (May–Sep) when Atlantic swell is smallest.
tide
Mid-to-high tide covers the sharp rocks at the entry; at low tide the platform is slippery with algae.
shelter
The complex's lava platform and breakwaters knock down NW swell; water inside the pools is calm, but the open ocean just beyond is fully exposed to N/NW.
conditions
Calm days only: N/NW swell under ~0.8–1 m and light wind. When swell builds, waves wash over the platform — stay out.
hazard
The dominant danger is entry/exit over the lava platform: a surging wave throws you onto sharp rock and can trap you in the pool. Outside the pools the ocean has no shelter at all.
access
Direct off the EN101 in town, large car park at the complex, steps and ramps straight to the water; changing rooms, shower, lifeguard in bathing season.
Concessioned bathing area — spearfishing is banned here; it's the entry point to get beyond the pools to the lava reefs and tunnels, hunting well away from bathers.
Aquário Natural Pools (Cachalote)East end of bay / wild free pools · Piscinas Naturais do Aquário (Cachalote)
dangerous
⛔ Banned here
exposed head-on to the swell today
window
Weekdays and early morning are quieter than the paid complex; summer is the calmest window.
tide
High water covers the rocky entry; at low tide many sharp lava ledges are exposed.
shelter
Tall black lava ridges at the east end of the bay create calm-water pockets from N/NW swell; beyond the ridge it's open ocean.
conditions
On calm days with small N/NW swell and light wind, like the main complex; the wilder entry needs an even flatter sea.
hazard
Same NW surge but with NO lifeguard or infrastructure: a sudden wave on the sharp lava entry, cut and entrapment risk against the rock. No one around to pull you out.
access
At the entrance to town, to your right facing the sea; free, open 24/7, walk down from the road/car park to the black lava pools.
Wild free variant — also a bathing area, hunting banned inside the pools; good as a quiet entry to the same lava reefs. ⚠️ Place is real (Cachalote = Aquario free pools, OSM 'Piscinas Naturais do Aquario' at 32.8679,-17.1665), but claimed coords 32.8696,-17.169 are ~300m NW off, landing between the two complexes. HAZARD DISHONEST: claims 'NO lifeguard... no one around to pull you out', but Visit Madeira and Porto Moniz official sources confirm this bathing area IS supervised throughout the bathing season (plus outdoor shower). The isolation danger is fabricated/overstated.
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».
Prime target. Shy of light — pick early/twilight windows.
Salema
0–2 m · — · daytime
Easiest target at 0–6 m. ⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
Polvo (octopus)
1–6 m · high water · twilight
Peaks in autumn. Spot the den by the pile of shells. Don't take egg-bearing females. Min. weight 750 g (DGRM).
Tainha (mullet)
0–2 m · — · —
Extremely wary; murky water HINDERS it. Opportunistic, in calm coves.
Santola (spider crab)
1–10 m · low water (reef shelf exposed) · calm morning (≤force 2)
Carapace ≥12 cm. Peaks Jul–Aug. CLOSED 15.02–15.06. Limit 2 kg/day.
Law
🦀 spider crab open (season 16.06–14.02)
✓⚠️ Madeira and the Azores run their OWN rules: in the Autonomous Regions the licence, the fees, the permitted gear and the limits are set by the region's own government, not by (DL 246/2000, art. 20.º n.º 1). The mainland figures — the licence fee, the daily cap, the spider-crab closed season, the mainland minimum-size table — do NOT apply here.
✓Breath-hold only: spearfishing may be practised in apnea alone. Scuba, rebreather and hookah are banned; the speargun may not be powered by a detonating charge or by compressed gas (DL 246/2000, art. 9.º n.º 3 — o antigo art. 6.º foi revogado).
✓The catch may NOT be sold: displaying for sale, offering or selling recreational catch is prohibited — it is for the fisher, the household, or donation to charitable, scientific or museum institutions (DL 246/2000, art. 7.º).
✓A loaded speargun out of the water is an offence (DL 246/2000, art. 14.º n.º 2 f). Same article: no fishing closer than the legally set distance from concessioned beaches during the bathing season (n.º 2 d), nor in places closed for health or marine-traffic reasons (n.º 2 e). The exact metres come from the regulation and the capitania — check before you go.
✓Madeira: recreational fishing runs on the region's own instrument — . Spearfishing must be marked at the surface by signalling equipment no more than 30 m from the diver (art. 4.º n.º 2 — not art. 8.º, which is the closed-areas article), and it is banned between sunset and sunrise (art. 8.º n.º 3). Art. 4.º n.º 1 expressly allows gear for cold protection, buoyancy, safety and carrying the catch.
✓Where recreational fishing is closed in Madeira (, art. 8.º n.º 1): in marked shipyard and aquaculture areas; within 100 m of any signposted outfall; over the water of bathing concessions and within 300 m of places commonly used for bathing; and in any other area marked by the port or maritime authority. This is where the «300 m» figure comes from — it is MADEIRAN, and the mainland rule is a different one. ⚠️ This list is NOT closed: its al. d) delegates to areas the port or maritime authority delimits and marks, and its n.º 2 imports everything closed to PROFESSIONAL fishing. Both categories are populated: the Regulamento de Exploração dos Portos da Madeira, art. 17.º n.º 1 al. b), bans «o exercício da pesca profissional e desportiva seja qual for o engenho ou arte empregue» inside every port and terminal, art. 24.º closes the Socorridos and Caniçal fuel terminals, and Edital n.º 8/2026 of the Funchal port captaincy marks a seasonal circuit off Marina da Quinta do Lorde. A place NOT named in the list is not thereby open.
✓Porto Santo, the marine protected-area network: spearfishing there is ALLOWED, but on an authorisation from the managing body and under — at most 4 in a group and 8 in the area at once (art. 14.º). The exception is the Ilhéu de Cima area, where all fishing is banned. On an ordinary recreational dive in the network, carrying any fishing gear or speargun is expressly forbidden, a defence knife apart (art. 8.º).
✓Night is prohibited here too: spearfishing between sunset and sunrise is an offence under the decree-law itself (DL 246/2000, art. 14.º n.º 1 d), which is in force in the Autonomous Regions as well.
Rules change, and in the Autonomous Regions they are their OWN. Before heading out, check with the regional fisheries administration (Madeira / Azores), not with the mainland DGRM tables.
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. At Cabo Raso/Arriba a 0.5 m rise in swell makes a boulder exit impossible — getting pinned/unable to climb out is the main killer here.
Headland rip: at Cabo Raso there is 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.
Nortada (Jun–Sep): wind builds from midday — be out of the water by ~11:00; 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 · Porto Moniz
Spearfishing in Porto Moniz: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-20 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Porto Moniz sits on Madeira's wild northwest corner, all volcanic rock and lava pools facing N/NW. That side of the island takes the full Atlantic groundswell, so it only opens in summer calms, on a small N/NW swell and a light wind at the main pools. Those pools are a concessioned bathing area and the free Cachalote pools are a bathing area too; hunting is banned inside both, so you enter there and swim out to the lava reefs and tunnels to work sargo and passing pelagics. National DGRM rules apply: licence from 16, apnea only, daylight only, Alfa buoy within 30 m. Deep, exposed water on an open coast means this is not a place to dive alone.
TL;DR
Porto Moniz is the exposed north face of Madeira: everything looks N/NW straight into Atlantic groundswell, so you dive it in summer calms or not at all.
The natural pools are entry points, not hunting ground. You can't fire inside the bathing pools, so you use them to slip past the lava and hunt the reef outside, well clear of swimmers.
Window at the main pools: N/NW swell under about 0.8 to 1 m and light wind, best May to September. Cachalote wants it flatter still; Ribeira da Janela is Madona, a surf reef that only opens on a rare dead calm, so scout from land and never dive it solo.
National DGRM rules apply, with Madeira's own specifics worth confirming: licence from 16, apnea only, daylight only, Alfa buoy within 30 m; grouper and mero protected, meagre closed through June.
Best spearfishing entries in Porto Moniz
None of these is a soft beach. All three are volcanic entries on an exposed north coast, and the pools are bathing zones where you can't fire, so you use them to reach the reef outside. Piscinas Naturais do Porto Moniz is the concessioned, lifeguarded fallback with a car park and steps. Cachalote is the free pools next door, quieter but rated red for the raw lava entry. Ribeira da Janela is a scout-only Madona break, spectacular and no place for a casual swim.
Straight off the EN101 in town, big car park, steps and ramps to the water, with changing rooms, a shower and a bathing-season lifeguard.
You can't fire inside the pools, so this is a gateway: get past the breakwaters to the lava reef and tunnels and hunt well away from swimmers. The catch is the entry itself, where a surging wave over the lava platform throws you onto sharp rock and can pin you in the pool. Go on that small-swell window at mid to high tide, when the sharp rock is covered.
Piscinas Naturais do Aquario (Cachalote)
Free lava pools, east end of the bay
Shallow in the lava pockets; open ocean deepens quickly past the ridge
Advanced, high solo risk (red)
At the town entrance on your right facing the sea, free and open around the clock, a walk down from the road; supervised in bathing season.
Free and less crowded than the paid complex, and staffed by a lifeguard in season, but rated red for a reason: the wild entry over sharp black lava wants an even flatter sea than the main pools, and a sudden wave on the ledge can cut you or trap you against the rock. Hunting inside the pools is off the table here too.
Ilheus da Ribeira da Janela
Exposed pebble beach and sea stacks at a river mouth
Shallow reef-and-boulder entry; the islets sit about 200 m offshore
Advanced, land-scout only (red)
About 2 km east on the EN101 toward Seixal, free parking by the beach, rock-cut steps down to the black pebble shore.
This is Madona, a documented surf reef: a powerful left over rock, a nasty shorebreak on the sharp pebble entry and current running around the islets. It only comes in on a rare dead calm with minimal N/NW swell and a S/SW offshore wind, so read it from land first and don't dive it solo without someone local.
When can you spearfish in Porto Moniz?
Summer, and really only summer. This is the exposed north face of Madeira, so the whole coast lives on the N/NW swell, and May to September is when the Atlantic lies down enough to get in the water. The calmest mornings win, before the afternoon breeze fills in. At the main pools the number to watch is N/NW swell under about 0.8 to 1 m with light wind; above that, waves wash over the lava platforms and the entries close out. Cachalote wants the sea flatter still, and Ribeira da Janela only opens on a rare dead calm with a S/SW offshore wind. Mid to high tide covers the sharp rock at the pool entries, while low water leaves the platform slippery with algae. The water off this coast is warm and very clear, subtropical blue, with depth building fast off the rock.
Can you spearfish inside the natural pools?
No. The paid pools in the vila are a concessioned bathing area, and the free Cachalote pools at the town entrance are a bathing area too, and firing a gun inside either is off the table. What they're good for is access. You enter over the lava, swim out past the breakwaters and ridges, and hunt the reef and lava tunnels beyond, keeping well clear of swimmers. Treat the pools as the door, not the room. Ribeira da Janela is the opposite problem: few people, but a Madona break where the risk is the sea itself, not the rules.
What fish and rules apply in Porto Moniz?
It fishes as blue-water island ground: sargo and other reef fish over the volcanic rock, with pelagics passing through when the north goes flat. The sizes below are the national DGRM figures for mainland Portugal, and Madeira can set its own regional specifics, so treat them as the baseline to confirm. White seabream is 17 cm, sea bass 36 cm, gilthead 19 cm, black seabream 23 cm, and octopus 750 g; meagre (corvina) is 42 cm and closed nationwide through June. Grouper and mero are fully protected, so leave them. You need a spearfishing licence from age 16, it's apnea only, daylight only, and the Alfa flag buoy stays within 30 m of you.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Porto Moniz?
Enter at the Piscinas Naturais do Porto Moniz or the free Cachalote pools and swim out to the lava reef beyond, since hunting is banned inside the pools themselves. Ribeira da Janela is a scout-only surf reef, not a casual entry.
Is it safe to dive Porto Moniz?
Only in a summer calm. It's the exposed north coast of Madeira, so you want a small N/NW swell and light wind at the main pools, and Cachalote and Ribeira need it flatter still. Not a place to dive alone.
When is the sea calm enough at Porto Moniz?
Mostly May to September, on the flat mornings before the afternoon breeze. Once N/NW swell is over the metre-or-so mark the waves break over the lava and the entries close out.
Do I need a licence to spearfish here?
Yes. A Portuguese spearfishing licence from age 16, apnea only, daylight only, with an Alfa buoy within 30 m. Grouper and mero are protected, and Madeira may set its own regional details worth checking.
Can you hunt at Ribeira da Janela?
It's Madona, a break with a dangerous entry and current around the islets. Scout it from land and don't dive it solo without a local guide; it only opens on a rare dead calm.
Portugal
