Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 🌫 Murky all week after the storm — the water isn't settling
Sources & confidence
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.
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.
Safety gates
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
Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.
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.
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Riverton, we'll send the go / no-go verdict. Email is all we need.
What's missing? Tell us what you'd like to see — new spots, species, data or features. We read everything.
Visibility and what drives it — post-storm clearing, river plume, temperature and the thermocline.
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 spotsRelief and bottom type, tides, and the depths of each spot.
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.
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 mapRocky Colac Bay/Ōraka west of Riverton; pāua and butterfish in cold kelp water — Foveaux GW hazard, advice-heavy.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appHalf-sheltered bay at Riverton Rocks, rock and sand, 2–8 m. Howells Point shelters it from the southerly swell, so it fishes more often than the open coast. Clouds up after rain — the Jacobs River estuary is next door.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appSOLO 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.
Cameras, map and reference — to hand as you come up.
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».
Rules as of now — 25.10.2026 17:38 (Pacific/Auckland)
Riverton has rock entry points such as Colac Bay / Ōraka, Balancing Rock (Riverton West) and Hendersons Bay (Riverton). Aparima/Riverton on the western Southland coast, partly sheltered behind Riverton Rocks — cold, kelp-rich water with pāua, blue cod and butterfish. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.
Summer (Dec–Mar) — cold, rough Foveaux water; rare windows, harsh conditions.
Summer 9–13 °C — 7 mm / drysuit; cold Foveaux.
Very hard: cold, rough Foveaux — rare windows.
No — New Zealand has no recreational sea-fishing licence, so anyone may spearfish at Riverton; MPI's size, bag and gear rules still apply and they are set per MPI fishing area: Riverton is in the Southland area, where the combined finfish daily limit is 30. Pāua is free-dive only — having underwater breathing apparatus while taking pāua is banned nationwide — crayfish (rock lobster) may be taken only by hand or a hand-held loop, never speared — MPI's rules set no scuba ban for crayfish; spearfishing is banned inside every marine reserve, and mātaitai, taiāpure and rāhui must be respected. See the guide.
Rules change and are regional. Before heading out, check with MPI (regional fishing rules / the NZ Fishing Rules app), DOC (marine reserves) and local notices (rāhui/mātaitai).
