Zarautz spearfishing forecast — wind, swell, visibility, tides & live cameras

spearo.app / Spain / Zarautz
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◈Zarautz · Spain
2.5
💧 Water should clear by Thursday (~5d) — tentative (distant windows uncertain)
visibility~1m

Nottoday

Today — sit it out — wave, wind and surge pounding. 💧 Water should clear by Thursday (~5d) — tentative (distant windows uncertain)

Sources: AEMET/MeteoAlarm · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2 — high confidence · data 20:56

Sources & confidence

Sources
AEMET/MeteoAlarm · buoys · Open-Meteo · Copernicus · Sentinel-2
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.

Entry pointsNo-take zonesLive cams

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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Nearby towns

  • Orio
  • Deba
  • Mutriku
  • Ondarroa
  • Lekeitio

Cantabrian coast

  • Hondarribia
  • Bermeo
  • Getxo (Bilbao)
  • Castro Urdiales
  • Santander
  • Llanes
  • Gijón

Catalonia

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  • Tarragona
  • Sitges
  • Barcelona
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  • Roses
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spearo.app · a private marine instrument · Zarautz · a planner, not a safety guarantee · TidesPrivacy
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0 m

Surface

Wind, wave and the swell windows — when to go and the best hours.

spearo.app
no dataupdated 20:56
Zarautz — solo, off the rocks
DON'T GO
don't go · wave 2.0 m (occasionally up to ~4.0 m)
wave 2 mwind 11, gusts 25 km/hsurge pounding the rocksvisibility ~1 m
today, best window 06:00–09:00
fish · Visibility 1 m · Water 17.9°C
confidence low · verdict for the selected day
Best window · next 3 days

Next 3 days — not divable: wave up to 2.1 m

💧 Water should clear by Thursday (~5d) — tentative (distant windows uncertain)

Tell me when it's on

Just your email — nothing else needed.

Before entering, check the camera and the surge
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.

Sunday · today2026-10-25
08:34–19:10 · full moon
▲ 04:00▼ 10:00▲ 16:00▼ 22:00mid-range tides · 3.7 m
Hours (06→20)
06
09
12
15
18
Day's trends
Tide-2.11 m
Wave2.14 m
Wind7 km/h
Water18 °C
fish activity: moon overhead 00:50 · high · moonset 07:42 · moderate · moon underfoot 13:10 · high · moonrise 18:28 · moderate
Conditions window06:00–09:00
don't go fish
Hs 1.98 m · roughperiod 9.2 swind 11→25surge 33.9viz 1 m
1.98 mrough · up to ~3.96 · 320° at an angle
9.2 sswell moderate
11→25gusts 25 km/h
33.9pounding the rocks
0.11m/s
1 mrecent swell
17.9°C5 mm + hood
▼10:00tide falling
Atmosphere45 kmlandmarks visible
moderatemoonset
  • wave 2.0 m (occasionally up to ~4.0 m)
  • swell period 9 s
  • ebb — weaker inshore
confidence lowtwilight
Open the seafloor map with entry points →

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.

See all spots →
−20 m

The 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 →
🔒 AitzaundiaZarautz
no data
Ultra · subscribers
window
—

The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.

Open in the app →
Desembocadura del Oria (Orio)Zarautz
no data
⚠️ This point is inside the restricted zone “Zona de baño censada «Antilla» (Orio) + 250 m — pesca submarina prohibida (art. 14.3, Decreto 198/2000), 1 jun – 30 sep”: fishing there is regulated (season, gear, permit), not banned outright. Read the zone's rules before you go.
window
—

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».

connecting to the stream…
Zarautz — Playa de Zarautz (CamaraMar / Gipuzkoa)Live cam (Zarautz surf beach) — live stream.camera: official ↗
Open the seafloor map →
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
    Dicentrarchus labrax · Cantabrian & NW · RD 347/2011 art. 4 bis
  • gilthead seabream
    Sparus aurata · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • salema / saupe
    Sarpa salpa · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
    ⚠️ Do NOT eat the head/guts (ichthyosarcotoxism).
  • bogue
    Boops boops · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • black seabream
    Spondyliosoma cantharus · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • grey mullet
    Mugil / Chelon spp. · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • red porgy
    Pagrus pagrus · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • L'Escala
  • Palamós

    • Levante

    • Peñíscola
    • Benicàssim
    • Burriana
    • Valencia
    • Cullera
    • Dénia
    • Xàbia
    • Benidorm
    • Santa Pola

    Galicia

    • Viveiro
    • A Coruña
    • Sanxenxo
    • O Grove
    • Vigo
    • Muros
    • Ribeira
    • Baiona

    Balearics

    • Sant Antoni (Ibiza)
    • Palma
    • Alcúdia
    • Formentera
    • Ciutadella

    Murcia

    • Cabo de Palos
    • Cartagena

    All 73 spots → · spearo.app — All countries

    transparency ~22 m · satellite, 2 days agosatellite estimate · may differ right at the shore

    Pasaia buoy: wave 3.2 m · 2 h ago(model: 1.9 m)

    tide
    The ebb pushes a huge volume out through the mouth and the bar breaks when that current meets the swell coming in from outside; with a spring range of 4.2-4.5 m that is serious business. You get in on the flood or at high slack, and you get out before the tide turns.
    shelter
    The Oria mouth is partly covered by the jetty and by the Antilla point, which takes the sting out of the northwest, though the 305-45° sector still comes in over the bar. With southerly wind everything goes still and it becomes one of the few workable places on this stretch.
    conditions
    The Oria runs loaded after rain and stains the mouth brown for days; in a dry summer and on a flooding tide the water clears and the mixed sand-and-stone bottom reads well. After a blow, suspended sand ruins it anyway, even when the river itself is running clean.
    hazard
    The bar is the genuinely dangerous part: it breaks dry and drags without warning. Rowing crews, pleasure boats and fishing boats come and go from Orio at all hours, and Antilla beach fills with swimmers. River mouths are usually closed by regulation, so check that before you get in.
    access
    Park in Orio or at Antilla and get to the water either over the rocks on the jetty side or off the beach sand. Do not swim in the channel while the tide is ebbing, however short the stretch looks: the current always wins. Exit on the same side and with the gun already unloaded.

    Mixed bottom with current; semi-sheltered, mind the river bar.

    Google Maps
    Flysch de ZumaiaZarautz
    no data
    window
    —
    tide
    Here the tide is everything: at low water the tidal platform dries out for hundreds of metres and a floor of slabs appears that at high water simply does not exist. With 4.2-4.5 m springs and extremes near 5 m, the entry and exit window is set by the tide table, not by your schedule.
    shelter
    The flysch cliffs face north and nothing stops the 305-45° sector; at 325° it breaks top to bottom against the wall. It only goes with south or southeast wind, which blows off the land and leaves the water against the cliff like glass.
    conditions
    Because the bottom is rock and not sand, in calm conditions you see very well between the flysch layers and pick out the cracks from above. As soon as there is some groundswell the water washes in and out of the ledges, fills with particles and surges; with a northwest sea this is nobody's spot.
    hazard
    Mind the legal side: to the west, toward Deba, lies the protected Deba-Zumaia biotope, whose Sakoneta-Mendata Reserve Zone is closed to spearfishing. This spot sits outside it, about 2 km away, but the boundary is something you check on the map before you leave, not in the water.
    access
    You come down from Zumaia via Itzurun and the Algorri area, with steps to the sand and then the slab platform if the tide allows. With any groundswell never exit over the ledges: they sweep you onto edges that genuinely cut. The good, safe exit is always the sand at Itzurun.

    Flysch cliffs and drop-offs; very exposed, only in calm seas.

    Google Maps
    🔒 Izarraizko muturraZarautz
    no data
    Pro · subscribers
    window
    —

    The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.

    Open in the app →
    🔒 Mollarri IrlaZarautz
    no data
    Pro · subscribers
    window
    —

    The full spot briefing is part of the subscription: entry, bottom, hazards, tide window.

    Open in the app →
    Ratón de Getaria (San Antón)Zarautz
    no data
    window
    —
    tide
    Spring range of 4.2-4.5 m, with extremes close to 5 m. At low water the rock ledges at the foot of the hill appear and give you a comfortable place to get in and out; at high water it is all swimming from the first stroke. Around the tip the current speeds up, so go at slack.
    shelter
    Mount San Antón acts as a screen: in northwesterlies the east side, the port side, lies down, and with an easterly you work the west face, the one looking at Zarautz. The tip of the mouse, on the other hand, takes the whole 305-45° sector and 325° makes it impossible.
    conditions
    With south and southeast the water clears a lot and the drop-offs read well through the weed; the Urola and the port's own stirring dirty it when it rains or when things get churned up. With northwest groundswell visibility drops to little more than a couple of metres and it is not worth it.
    hazard
    Getaria is a working fishing port: harbour waters are closed and you must leave 300 m to professional boats at work, and here they come and go at all hours. The protected Deba-Zumaia biotope lies some 6 km to the west, so do not mix it up with this spot. At night, banned.
    access
    From Getaria you go up the isthmus road toward the lighthouse and drop to the rock on whichever side is calmer that day. The stone is weedy and genuinely slippery: put your fins on once you are already in the water. Exit on the same side you entered, never by going around the tip.

    Rocky Getaria peninsula; drop-offs on both sides, grouper and sea bass, exposed to the NW.

    Google Maps
    Roquedo de MollarriZarautz
    no data
    window
    —
    tide
    At spring low water you walk out over the sandstone slabs to the foot of Mollarri and get in almost without swimming; at high water, and the spring range here is 4.2-4.5 m, all of that is covered and the break slams into the crag. Wet slab is slipperier than ice.
    shelter
    The rock closes off Zarautz beach on the east and is wide open to 305-45°; at 325° there is nothing to be had. The only shade comes from the crag itself, which in a westerly leaves a patch of laid-down water on its eastern flank.
    conditions
    The sand off the long Zarautz beach mixes into everything and leaves the water green for days after any decent swell. With several flat days in a row it reads decently among the slabs and the weed, which is where the fish are; with groundswell, do not even go near.
    hazard
    Very busy beach: surfers and swimmers almost all year, so keep well away from them and never shoot toward the shore. The northwest galerna comes in fast and in this corner pins you against the crag with no margin. Buoy compulsory, gun unloaded out of the water and a 5 kg daily cap.
    access
    Park at the east end of Zarautz, by the Iñurritza area, and walk along the sand toward Mollarri. Cross the slabs on a falling tide, never on a rising one, and keep your return point in mind: if the sea comes up, the slab crossing disappears and you have to swim around.

    Rocky point east of Zarautz; rock-and-weed bottom, exposed to swell.

    Google Maps

    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.

  • striped red mullet
    Mullus surmuletus · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • common octopus
    Octopus vulgaris · Cantabrian & NW · 1 kg
    Talla por PESO: mín. 1 kg (RD 560/1995, todos los anexos). No coger hembras con huevos.
  • European conger
    Conger conger · Cantabrian & NW · RD 560/1995 Anexo I
  • pollack
    Pollachius pollachius · Cantabrian & NW · closed 1 Jan–30 Apr
    Talla operativa 42 cm; máx. 2 ejemplares/día (medida recreativa anual de la UE, Reg. 2025/202). ⚠️ Atlantic: recreational CLOSED 1 Jan–30 Apr (catch-and-release).
    • 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).
    • ✓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.
    • ✓Basque Country: the spearfishing licence is issued by the Basque Government — Gobierno Vasco (Eusko Jaurlaritza): Decreto 198/2000, platform, spearfishing valid 1 year.
    • ✓Basque Country: spearfishing needs a SEPARATE licence (Decreto 198/2000, art. 4); it takes being 16, an official sports medical certificate of fitness for this very activity, and accident + civil-liability insurance (art. 7.3). The cap is 5 kg (art. 12.1). Barred within 250 m of properly delimited bathing or watersport areas (art. 14.3); orto to ocaso only (art. 16). Ports, docks, habitual anchorages, navigation channels and vessel-traffic zones are closed; and a biotope, a special-protection zone or an artificial reef closes spearfishing only when ITS OWN norm says so (art. 18).
    • ⛔ Seahorses (Hippocampus) — protected (RPE).

    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.

    FAQ — spearfishing in Zarautz

    Where can I spearfish in Zarautz?

    Zarautz has rock entry points such as Ratón de Getaria (San Antón), Roquedo de Mollarri and Flysch de Zumaia. Zarautz faces north, between the Getaria peninsula and the Oria mouth. Below you'll find each spot (access, shelter and hazards) and today's forecast.

    When is the best season in Zarautz?

    Summer and early autumn are the windows — in winter the Bay of Biscay swell shuts the coast down. Tides are large (4 m+) and set up current, so pick a small-sea day with the tide in your favour.

    How cold is the water in Zarautz?

    ~14–22 °C: cool, but it warms up in the summer window. A 5 mm suit at peak summer, 7 mm with a hood the rest of the year.

    Is Zarautz good for a beginner?

    Demanding: strong Biscay swell, big tides and exposed rock entries. It's for those who can already read the sea and pick the window well — not a coast to start on.

    Do I need a licence in Zarautz?

    Yes — in Zarautz you need a recreational sea-fishing licence (issued by the autonomous community); breath-hold only (no scuba), with a marker buoy and no night diving. See the guide.

    Full guide: spearfishing in Spain →
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