Today — right on the edge — wave, wind and visibility.
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
Leave your email — and the moment a window opens at Whitianga, 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.
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.
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 mapCathedral Cove / Te Whanganui-o-Hei Marine Reserve — no-take, spearfishing banned (spear:no).
Google MapsCameras, 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 17:33 (Pacific/Auckland)
All 201 spots → · Region: Coromandel · spearo.app — All countries
transparency nearby ~6 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore
The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Te Pare Point at the south end of Hahei, OUTSIDE the Cathedral Cove reserve; snapper, kingfish and cray.
Google MapsBoulder coast just south of Hot Water Beach; walk in for crayfish and snapper.
Google MapsThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appThe full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.
Open in the appKelp headland at the north end of Ōpito Bay; butterfish, boarfish and snapper in the weed.
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.
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).
Spearfishing around Whitianga works off Mercury Bay reef and rock, and this coast rates prime. The usable ground runs from sheltered harbour bays at Flaxmill and Maramaratotara, through Shakespeare Cliff at the bay entrance, out to Panerahi Point and Wharekaho Reef in the north, with 2–12 m of water close to the stone. The coast faces north-east, so a north-easterly swell is what shuts it and a settled south-westerly is the window. Te Whanganui-o-Hei / Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve is closed to all taking. New Zealand needs no sea-fishing licence, but MPI Auckland and Kermadec rules decide what you may keep.
The four entries below are the premium ground on this coast, ordered from the exposed northern rock to the sheltered inner harbour. Te Whanganui-o-Hei / Cathedral Cove is deliberately not on the list: it is a marine reserve and closed to all taking.
| Spot | Type | Depth | Level | Access | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panerahi Point (Wharekaho North) | Rock point with ridges and channels on sand | 4–12 m | Intermediate to advanced | Rock point north of Mercury Bay; treat as boat-supported unless you have verified a shore exit | Described as cleaner than Mercury Bay itself, with ridges and channels running out onto sand. It is open to the north-east, so the window is a south-westerly. |
| Wharekaho (Simpsons Beach) Reef | Reef edge off a sandy beach | 3–9 m | Beginner to intermediate | Beach entry with rock points at either end | Sheltered from the south and open to the north-east. The reef edge holds 3–9 m with sand between the points, which makes it the easiest of the northern options to read. |
| Shakespeare Cliff | Rock cliff at the bay entrance | 4–12 m | Advanced | Rock entry at the entrance to Mercury Bay, settled spells only | The cliff carries on underwater, so you get 4–12 m within a few metres of the stone. It is open to the north-east and the rock entry only works in a settled spell. |
| Flaxmill Bay | Sheltered inner-harbour bay, sand and rock | 2–8 m | Beginner to intermediate, but only around the tide | Shore entry inside Mercury Bay by Ferry Landing | Tidal flow through the narrows is strong, so plan around slack rather than around the forecast. Visibility runs 2–5 m depending on tide and wind. |
Because the coast faces north-east and almost nothing here is sheltered from that sector. Whitianga has a north-east aspect, and the north-east is the bad direction for Panerahi Point, Shakespeare Cliff and Wharekaho Reef alike, with a settled south-westerly as the window. Inside the harbour the driver changes from swell to tide: Flaxmill Bay sits by the narrows where the flow runs hard, and visibility there is given as 2–5 m depending on tide and wind. For the wider region, summer water runs 14–22 °C, with 10–25 m of visibility on the outer islands and inshore water that can drop under 3 m after a north-easterly.
Te Whanganui-o-Hei / Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve and the Te Whanganui-o-Hei / Cathedral Cove Extension Marine Reserve are both listed as no-take, and MPI names Whanganui A Hei among the marine reserves in this region that are closed to all fishing. In a New Zealand marine reserve no fishing of any kind is allowed, so spearfishing is out. Scallops are separate again: MPI records all of SCA CS, the Coromandel scallop fishery, as fully closed since 17 March 2023, meaning no take and no possession. The reserve boundaries are the kind of line that has to be checked on the DOC map before you get in the water, not guessed from the beach.
Whitianga falls under the MPI Auckland and Kermadec rules, which set a combined daily bag of 20 finfish per fisher, excluding specified baitfish and freshwater eels. Within that combined limit MPI lists snapper at 7 per day with a 30 cm minimum on the SNA 1 east coast, yellowtail kingfish at 3 per day with a 75 cm minimum, trevally at a 25 cm minimum, red moki at 40 cm, and John Dory, porae and blue maomao under the “all other finfish” line with no minimum length. Kina sit outside the finfish count at 150 per day in FMA 1, raised from 50 on 1 August 2024. Finfish length is measured from the tip of the nose to the middle ray of the tail, not to the fork.
Both are national rules and both carry real penalties. MPI states plainly that you cannot spear crayfish: the regulation bans using a spear to take rock lobster and bans possessing a speared one, with a fine of up to $10,000, so divers take crayfish by hand. Pāua is the mirror image — the method is legal but the gear is not, because underwater breathing apparatus is prohibited nationwide for pāua and the ban extends to merely possessing pāua while a tank is in the boat or the car. A snorkel is excluded from that definition, so free-diving for pāua is fine. Blackfoot pāua is 10 per day at a 125 mm minimum shell length, yellowfoot pāua is a separate 10 per day at an 80 mm minimum. Salmon and trout may not be speared either, and spotted black grouper is absolutely protected under the Wildlife Act 1953.
Start with the water, not the calendar. CoroLive runs a live camera on Buffalo Beach and Mercury Bay that will show you surface chop and wind before you drive — read it as a wind clue, not as a visibility reading. Then pick the entry that matches the sector: harbour bays when the north-easterly is in, the northern rock and Shakespeare Cliff in a settled south-westerly. Fly a dive flag and keep a float between you and boat traffic, which is the bigger day-to-day risk on this coast, ahead of the bronze whalers that are also present. Around Ahuahu / Great Mercury the caulerpa Controlled Area Notice leaves spearfishing and hand-gathering expressly allowed while banning anchoring and seabed-contact methods, so plan the boat side of the day accordingly. MPI says rules change regularly and should be checked before every trip.
No. MPI states you do not need a licence to fish in the sea around New Zealand, though a freshwater licence is a separate matter and all MPI rules still apply.
No. Te Whanganui-o-Hei / Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve and its extension are no-take, and no fishing of any kind is allowed inside a New Zealand marine reserve.
MPI lists 7 per day with a 30 cm minimum on the SNA 1 east coast, counted inside the combined daily limit of 20 finfish.
No. Spearing rock lobster, or possessing a speared one, is an offence nationwide with a fine of up to $10,000. Divers take them by hand.
The region carries active spiny rock lobster closures — Pārengarenga Harbour to Cape Rodney from 1 April 2026 and Cape Rodney to Port Jackson from 1 April 2025 — so check the current MPI closure before taking any.
In a settled south-westerly. Panerahi Point, Shakespeare Cliff and Wharekaho Reef are all described as open to the north-east, so a north-east swell is what closes them.
