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
no dataupdated 19:19
Tossa de Mar — solo, off the rocks
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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: 1391 spots across 205 stretches of coast — mainland Portugal, Madeira and the Azores.
Both campsites wake early and by nine there are kayaks and paddleboards on the water, so your window runs from sunrise to eight. May and October are the best: 17 and 21 degrees and visibility holds. From July to August octopus and mero are closed; you are left with sargo, variada and dorada.
tide
Sea level is not something you calculate here, it moves twenty centimetres. Around Cap de Pola, though, with easterly swell there is a clear pull: the water wraps the cape and drags from one cove into the other. Plan to round the cape at the start of the session and come back with the drift.
shelter
Two neighbouring coves with Cap de Pola between them. Both face east and southeast and both take swell, but the cape gives you a choice: with a northeasterly hide under its southern face in Cala Pola, with a southerly move over to Cala Bona. With Tramuntana coming off the land both lie flat.
conditions
Good from 300 to 30 degrees. The 70 to 175 sector shuts both coves at once and the worst direction is a hundred degrees, pure Llevant: then the access stairway turns into a washing machine. On a normal day you see 15–20 metres and the bottom is rich: rock, Posidonia and sand patches.
hazard
Legally this is clean: no closed zones and Ses Negres is forty kilometres north. Physically, the stairs down to the water are wet and slippery, and with swell running the exit is dangerous. Kayaks and paddleboards pass close inshore without looking: a buoy is compulsory and you stay within 25 metres of it.
access
From the GI-682 there are two separate turnoffs, one to the Cala Pola campsite and one to Cala Bona; along the shore it is about a kilometre between them. Paid parking in summer. Concrete stairs and a path take you down in three to five minutes. You enter over pebbles; rock and Posidonia at forty metres, the cape at two hundred.
Rock coves toward Sant Feliu; rich grounds, exposed to E swell.
Arrive in the dark and get in as soon as the sun is up: by nine the mooring field wakes and the resort launches and kayaks come out. July and August are a crowd and the big fish go deep. The best window runs from mid-September to late October, water at 24 and 21 degrees and an empty car park.
tide
The level moves twenty centimetres, forget it. What you do feel: in the mouth of the cove, between the two spurs, the water breathes back and forth with the easterly swell and rocks you on the way in. There is no permanent current; along-shore drift only shows up after several days of easterly wind.
shelter
The cove faces southeast and sits wedged between two rock spurs, so it cuts side wind, but Llevant and Gregal from east and northeast come straight in through the mouth. With Tramuntana from the north everything settles: it drops off the ridge and the water by the shore goes glassy, the chop starting some three hundred metres out.
conditions
Good weather runs from 290 to 20 degrees; then you see 15–25 metres alongside the northern spur. The Garbí from the southwest gets up after lunch and brings short chop, but it does not kill the cove. The 70 to 175 sector is closed: silt hangs over the Posidonia and rock and visibility drops to three or five metres.
hazard
The main danger is the mooring field and the watersports base inside the cove itself: stay tight to the rock and keep off the middle. Bathers mean 250 metres, and in summer that is half the beach. Do not touch mero under 50 centimetres and no more than two a day; dorada from 30 and sargo from 25.
access
Five kilometres from Tossa on the GI-682, down to the resort, paid parking right by the water. You enter over coarse sand and the first twenty metres of bottom are flat. It is about a hundred and fifty metres, five minutes, to the northern spur; the southern side is deeper, Posidonia and rock at 8–12 metres.
Rocky cove NE of Tossa; rock and Posidonia, moderately exposed to the E.
You come down by stairs, so get in early, before the heat and while the campsite sleeps: bathers turn up around ten. February is the coldest water at 13 degrees; July and August are 24 and 25. Night spearfishing is banned and you can only start after sunrise.
tide
You can ignore the tide completely: twenty centimetres decides nothing. The along-shore flow to the southwest runs further out and you do not feel it by the shore. What does reach you is mud: after a downpour the cliff and the campsite drain reddish water that clings to the walls for a day, sometimes two.
shelter
This is a string of narrow rock coves two kilometres southwest of town, open to south and southeast. The cliff and the pines block Tramuntana and the westerly Ponent, and under the wall the water sits like a mirror. Migjorn from the south and Garbí from the southwest walk straight in and hammer the rock.
conditions
Come with north or west wind. With a southerly do not bother: the coves are narrow, the swell bounces off the walls and churns the water, and visibility drops to two metres right at the mouth. On a calm day from April to June you see 15–20 metres, over boulders and sand pockets down to twelve.
hazard
Here the danger is the exit: you get in over rock under the wall, and if a southerly swell has come up while you were in, there is nowhere to climb out. Going alone is a bad idea, people are far away. The slabs are covered in urchins, so boots and gloves. And the gun is never loaded out of the water, only below.
access
Turn off the GI-682 towards the Cala Llevadó campsite, park up top, then a steep path and stairs: seven minutes down and a good twelve back up. You get in over the flat slabs on the right-hand side of the cove. The structure starts at once: boulders and walls thirty metres off the waterline.
Rocky coves to the SW; tricky entry off the rocks, semi-exposed to the S.
Work at first light: the excursion boats leave the Badia de Tossa around nine and by midday the Garbí picks up from the southwest. September and October are the best months, water at 24 and 21 degrees. Night is banned outright, sunset to sunrise. The permit is the Llicència de pesca recreativa subaquàtica, 20.55 euros a year.
tide
The tide moves about twenty centimetres here and changes nothing. What you count is wind drift: after two or three days of steady Llevant a slow along-shore flow runs southwest, and right at the tip of the cape it squeezes. Start from the Badia de Tossa so you come back with it, not against it.
shelter
The headland under the Vila Vella faces east and southeast, and the pebble pocket of Es Codolar sits on its southern side. While the Tramuntana blows from the north and northwest it comes off the land and lays the water flat. With Llevant from the east, around 100 degrees, the cape takes it head-on and there is nothing to do here.
conditions
Come with north and northwest wind: the Tramuntana runs off the hills to sea and under the cape visibility holds at 15–25 metres. A light Ponent from the west still works. Anything inside the 70 to 175 degree sector shuts the place down: at 3–12 metres the silt lifts and you see two or three metres.
hazard
There is no special closure here: the nearest, Ses Negres, is some forty kilometres to the northeast. But the 250-metre rule around bathing zones shuts the whole bay of Tossa by day in summer. Load the gun only underwater, scuba is banned for spearfishing anywhere in Spain and a buoy is compulsory. Watch the boats and the urchins on the entry rocks.
access
You walk down from the Vila Vella to Es Codolar; town parking is paid and fills by eight in the morning in summer. You get in over coarse pebbles and then straight onto rock, so bring boots. It is about a hundred metres, five minutes, out to the drop under the castle wall. From the water the Torre del Codolar is your marker.
Rocky ground below the Vila Vella; drop-offs and boulders, sea bream and gilthead, exposed to the easterly (E).
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».
Tossa de Mar — Platja Gran / badia (Vayawebcam)YouTube live — Tossa de Mar bay and Platja Gran, castle on the headland. Embeddable under YouTube's terms (owner left embedding on). Read the water and surf before you go.camera: youtube ↗
Sin 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 octopus
Octopus vulgaris · Mediterranean · 1 kg
Talla 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.
✓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).
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.
Local guide · Tossa de Mar
Spearfishing in Tossa de Mar: spots, seasons and rules
Updated 2026-07-20 · By Oleksandr, spearfisher
Tossa de Mar is a rocky Costa Brava shore that faces roughly southeast, and one thing runs the day here: the easterly, the Llevant. Cap de Tossa under the old-town Vila Vella, Cala Giverola to the northeast and the Cala Bona / Cala Pola coves toward Sant Feliu all sit open to that east swell. Cala Llevadó, southwest of town, is the odd one out, semi-exposed to the south with a fiddly rock entry. The legal frame is Catalonia: the Generalitat's underwater recreational licence, apnea only, a signalling buoy, Mediterranean sizes. Best on a settled spell, late spring through autumn.
TL;DR
The day is decided by the easterly. When the Llevant runs, Cap de Tossa, Cala Giverola and Cala Bona / Cala Pola all get chop, surge off the rock and murky water. Wait for a settled spell.
Cala Llevadó is the exception. It sits southwest of town and faces south, so it can stay fishable on an easterly, but the entry over the rocks is the hard part.
All four are rock entries, no soft beach, and they double as busy summer coves. Hunt well clear of the bathers and keep the buoy up.
Legal frame is Catalonia: the Generalitat's recreational underwater licence, apnea only, daylight only, Mediterranean minimum sizes, and no taking sharks or rays.
Best spearfishing spots in Tossa de Mar
These are four rock entries on an east-facing Costa Brava headland, no easy sand among them. Cap de Tossa sits right below the old-town Vila Vella; Cala Giverola and Cala Bona / Cala Pola open to the east swell; Cala Llevadó faces the other way, south, with an awkward rock entry. Use them on a settled sea only, buoy up, and check a cove against the reserve map before you drop in.
Spot
Type
Depth
Level
Access
Notes
Cap de Tossa (Es Codolar)
Rocky ground below the Vila Vella
Drop-offs and boulders
Intermediate; the town's most exposed mark
Shore entry off the rock below the old-town headland
Drop-offs and boulders hold sea bream and gilthead. It sits open to the easterly, so it turns rough and cloudy first when an east sea runs. This one is right by the town front, so keep well off the bathing area and the buoy up.
✓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.
✓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).
✓Catalonia (Decret 109/1995): the daily cap per licence is 10 kg of fish, 5 kg of cephalopods and 150 sea urchins (art. 25.1); the excess weight of one big specimen does not count (art. 25.2), and for tuna and swordfish there are no kilos at all — the cap is 2 pieces a day (art. 25.3). Sunrise to sunset only (art. 15), on a breath hold, with a hand spear or a mechanically propelled gun that may be loaded ONLY under water (art. 16). Keep 100 m from set gear, marine farms, anglers' rods and professional vessels, and at least 250 m from bathing zones measured along the shore (art. 17); lamps, torches, powder- or gas-propelled guns and explosive points are banned (art. 18); a surface buoy is mandatory (art. 19). Only fish, cephalopods and sea urchins may be taken (art. 24.1), and the triton (Charonia lampa — así lo imprime el decreto), the fan mussel (Pinna nobilis) and the date mussel (Lithophaga lithophaga) may not be collected at all (art. 24.2).
Rules change and are REGIONAL. Before heading out, check with the competent autonomous community (licence) and the min-size table in force.
Cala Giverola
Rocky cove northeast of Tossa
Rock and Posidonia edges
Intermediate
Shore entry at the cove
Rock and Posidonia, moderately exposed to the east. The cove shape cuts some of the swell, but an easterly still lays chop and murk over it. It doubles as a summer beach cove, so give the swimmers a wide berth in season.
Cala Llevadó
Rocky coves southwest of Tossa
Shore rock, awkward entry
Intermediate; the hard part is the entry
Tricky scramble down over the rocks
Rocky coves southwest of town, semi-exposed to the south. Facing away from the east, it can stay fishable on a Llevant day when the town marks are blown out. The trade-off is a fiddly entry and exit over the rock, so read it from land before you commit.
Cala Bona / Cala Pola
Rock coves toward Sant Feliu
Rich rocky grounds
Intermediate
Shore entry at the coves up the coast
The richest ground of the four, rock coves on the way to Sant Feliu de Guíxols. They sit open to the east swell, so they want the same settled, easterly-free window as the town spots.
When is the sea right for spearfishing in Tossa de Mar?
Late spring through autumn is the core window, and inside that you are waiting for a settled spell. The coast faces roughly southeast, and the sector that spoils it runs from the northeast round through east to south, worst on a due easterly, the Llevant. When that east sea is up, Cap de Tossa, Cala Giverola and Cala Bona / Cala Pola take chop, surge off the rock and cloudy water, and the entries turn unpleasant. Visibility swings with the swell and with runoff after rain, so the water reads best after a few calm days. Mornings, before the afternoon breeze fills in, are usually the cleanest.
Which Tossa spot works on an easterly?
Cala Llevadó, most of the time. It sits southwest of town and faces south, so a Llevant that shuts down the east-facing marks does not hit it head-on. The catch is getting in: it is an awkward scramble over the rocks in and out, so it suits someone comfortable reading a rock exit, not the first dive of the trip. If the swell has swung round to the south, though, Llevadó is the one that closes while the town side may lie down. Nothing here is sheltered from every direction; you pick the cove that faces away from whatever is running.
What can you spear at Tossa, and what are the rules?
The ground is classic Costa Brava rock: sea bream and gilthead over drop-offs, boulders and Posidonia edges, with the Cala Bona / Cala Pola coves toward Sant Feliu holding the richest bottom. The legal frame is Catalonia. You need the Generalitat's recreational underwater licence, the Llicència de pesca recreativa subaquàtica; it is apnea only with no scuba tanks, a signalling buoy up, the gun unloaded out of the water, and the catch is never sold. Minimum sizes follow the Mediterranean caladero: sea bream 23 cm, gilthead 20 cm, sea bass 25 cm, common octopus 1 kg, and grouper 50 cm with a two-a-day cap in Catalonia. Sizes and limits vary by comunidad, so confirm the Catalan list before you dive. Seahorses are protected and Catalonia bans taking sharks and rays outright. The Catalan rules also close specific stretches up the coast, such as Illes Medes, Ses Negres and the Cap de Creus zones, so a pretty cove is worth checking against the reserve map first.
FAQ
Where can you spearfish in Tossa de Mar?
Four rock entries: Cap de Tossa below the Vila Vella, Cala Giverola to the northeast, Cala Bona / Cala Pola toward Sant Feliu, and Cala Llevadó to the southwest. All want a settled sea, and Llevadó is the one that can stay fishable on an easterly.
What wind ruins the day in Tossa?
The Llevant, the easterly. The bad sector runs from the northeast through east to south, worst on a due easterly, and it puts chop and cloudy water on the town-facing spots.
Do I need a licence to spearfish in Tossa de Mar?
Yes, the Generalitat de Catalunya's recreational underwater fishing licence. It is apnea only, daylight only, with a signalling buoy up, and the catch cannot be sold.
What are the minimum sizes here?
Mediterranean caladero sizes: sea bream 23 cm, gilthead 20 cm, sea bass 25 cm, red mullet 11 cm, common octopus 1 kg, and grouper 50 cm with a two-a-day cap. Sizes and limits vary by comunidad, so confirm the Catalan list before you go.
Can you spear sharks or rays in Catalonia?
No. Catalonia lists elasmobranchs, sharks and rays, as prohibited catch, and seahorses are protected too.
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