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La Restinga, El Hierro

Reef · Salt water · in Canary Islands

A lava-flow coast at the southern tip of the westernmost Canary island, with volcanic reef, arches and boulder falls close inshore and the seabed dropping into very deep water a short distance out.

Safety: drowning and immersion — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply here.

What each one does, and what reduces it ↓

FishingHQ describes what this place is, not whether you may fish it. Access, permits and who to ask.

What you can catch here

Documented at this place, grouped by how you would be fishing, with how strongly the sources support each one. This is what has been written down, not a forecast, and being listed is never permission to fish.

From the shore · 1

From a boat · 4

What these strengths mean
Characteristic of this water
This water is strongly identified with this species by the sources that cover it.
Regular local target
Fishing sources describe this as a normal local target here, not merely as caught.
Seasonal
Well supported, and concentrated in part of the year rather than spread through it.
Recorded here
At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
How breadth is counted
A fish documented at six marks is shown as six marks: breadth never raises the strength on its own. A fishery account describes the fishing; a recorded catch reports one specific catch. How evidence is weighed.

Also associated with this ground

Recorded as present here without a documented method or strength behind them.

Wahoo

Fish documented nearby, not here

Nothing below has been documented at La Restinga, El Hierro itself. Each one has been documented at a named place on the same ground, and the places are listed with it. Treat this as what the water around here holds rather than as a catch list for this mark.

Widely documented on this ground

Documented at three or more neighbouring places, fished a way this place is also fished. That is a pattern about the ground rather than about any one mark, and it is the closest this site comes to saying you will probably meet a fish somewhere nothing has been written about.

From the shore

  • White seabream — documented at Pozo de las Calcosas; Puerto de la Estaca; The Tamaduste coast, El Hierro

Also documented at neighbouring places

One or two accounts each, on the ground around here. Enough to know the fish is caught in these waters; not enough to say anything about this place.

From the shore

From a boat

  • Wreckfish — documented at Puerto de la Estaca

How people fish it

Practised here: Sea fishing, Spearfishing.

Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.

  • Jigging

    Working a weighted lure with a rising-and-falling motion, usually vertically, so it behaves like a wounded or fleeing baitfish.

  • Trolling

    Towing lures or baits behind a moving boat to cover large volumes of water and locate scattered fish.

  • Shore diving

    Entering and leaving the water from land under your own power — the most accessible spearfishing and the one where the entry and exit are the dangerous part.

The ground and the water

The ground
A lava-flow coast at the southern tip of the westernmost Canary island, with volcanic reef, arches and boulder falls close inshore and the seabed dropping into very deep water a short distance out.
Exposure
In the lee of the island and famously calm — the sea here is named for it — which is why the diving and small-boat fishing concentrate at this point rather than anywhere else on the island.
Depth
Exceptionally steep. Deep, clear, warm water within a few hundred metres of the shore, and pelagic species reachable from a small boat almost immediately.

Getting there

What public sources describe, last checked 2026-08-20. Car parks fill, services change and a path existing is not a path anybody may use — none of this is a guarantee of availability and none of it is permission to be anywhere.

Getting to it
La Restinga sits at the southern tip of El Hierro in the municipality of El Pinar, reached by road down the island from Valverde and El Pinar. The island itself is reached by ferry to Puerto de La Estaca or by air.
Public transport
The island's regular bus network, run under the island authority, includes a route serving La Restinga. Fares and multi-trip cards are published by the operator.
Mobility
The island authority states the beach has access for people with reduced mobility. The port authority's own page does not describe disabled access to the harbour.

Parking

  • Parking for Playa de La Restinga

    Informal parking area · Charging not established

    The island authority states there are more than a hundred spaces for the beach. It names no operator and states no charge, so neither is recorded here.

Where this access information comes from
  • La Restinga: beach, access and facilities — Cabildo de El Hierro and Ayuntamiento de El Pinar de El Hierro (Local authority, harbour or protected-area body)Relied on for: The road access, the parking provision, the stated access for people of reduced mobility, and the toilet and shower provision at the beach.Passage read and verified
  • Reserva Marina del entorno de la Punta de La Restinga - Mar de las Calmas — Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentacion and the Gobierno de Canarias fisheries directorate (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: That the water off La Restinga is a zoned marine reserve co-administered by the Spanish fisheries ministry and the Canary Islands government.Passage read and verified

What is there

  • Public toilets

    At the beach, with showers and foot-washes; showers in summer only.

  • Harbour facilities

    A public port with a seventy-tonne travel-lift, a five-tonne crane, potable water, electricity, waste collection and round-the-clock security. A launching ramp is reported elsewhere and is not listed by the port authority, so none is recorded here.

  • Food or shelter

    A marine reserve information centre in the village, and diving operations working from the pier.

Through the year

Diveable and fishable year-round, with the pelagic species most abundant through the warmer months.

Safety

Drowning and immersion — Can cause serious injury or death

Mediterranean rock shores drop into deep water within a body length of the edge, so a slip puts somebody into water they cannot stand up in, frequently with no beach within reach and nobody in sight.

What reduces it: Wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, fish rock ground with somebody else, carry a means of calling for help on the person, and treat wet or weeded rock at the water's edge as unusable rather than as careful ground.

Boat traffic and being seen — Can cause serious injury or death

Summer small-craft traffic on this coast is heavy and fast, and a swimmer, breath-hold diver or small float is nearly invisible from a planing hull until it is too close to alter course.

What reduces it: Carry a surface marker buoy with a dive flag and keep it directly above the diver, work inside marked zones where they exist, and leave water where traffic is heavy rather than trying to be seen in it.

Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death

Atlantic swell reaches the northern and western coasts with little energy lost, because there is no shelf to dissipate it. Waves at exposed lava platforms are larger and less predictable than the wind suggests, and people are washed off regularly.

What reduces it: Check swell rather than wind. Watch any platform for a sustained period before committing to it. Never fish a position you could not leave immediately, and treat undercut and blowhole ground as unsafe regardless of conditions.

Rules and access

FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The Canary Islands are an autonomous community licensing their own recreational sea, boat and underwater fishing, separately from mainland Spain, and the archipelago carries marine reserves in which fishing and diving are restricted or prohibited on boundaries a visitor cannot see from the shore. Measures change. Check the current position with the Canarian government's fisheries administration before going.

Particular to this water: This ground lies in or beside a marine protected area whose zoning constrains fishing, diving, anchoring and collection independently of any licence, with rules that differ between zones and boundaries that are not visible from the water. Underwater fishing is licensed and regulated separately from rod fishing throughout this jurisdiction, with its own age, equipment and distance requirements, and holding a rod licence is not permission to spearfish.

Who holds the answer:

  • The Canarian government's fisheries administration, which licenses recreational sea and underwater fishing in the archipelago.
  • The island council, for local measures and for access to the coast.
  • The marine reserve administration, where the water is inside a reserve.
  • The regional Canarian government fisheries administration, for recreational licences, sizes and species rules
  • The Spanish national maritime and fisheries authorities, for offshore and vessel matters
  • The managing authority of any marine protected area or reserve, whose zoning governs what is permitted inside it
  • Local dive centres, charter operators and clubs, for current practice and access on individual islands

Nearby fishing

Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.

La Restinga, El HierroEl HierroPuerto de la EstacaPozo de las CalcosasThe Tamaduste coast, El Hierro
La Restinga, El Hierro and the publicly documented places around it. Approximate positions, not marks. On a narrow screen the plot is wider than the screen and scrolls sideways inside its frame. Positions are approximate by design — they are capped at about a hundred metres and describe where a named public place is, not where fish are and not a mark. Everything plotted here is also listed below.

Sources for this place

  • EMODnet — the European Marine Observation and Data Network — The European Commission, assembled from the national hydrographic offices, geological surveys and marine institutes of the member states (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Charted bathymetry, seabed substrate and seabed habitat for European sea areas, assembled from the national hydrographic and geological surveys, at the resolution the product publishes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • The European Environment Agency's assessments of Europe's waters, seas and coasts — European Environment Agency, Copenhagen (Conservation authority)Relied on for: Assessment of Europe's coasts and regional seas, including the condition of coastal water bodies, the pressures recorded on them and the coverage of designated sites.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Identification, distribution and habitat association of the fishes and invertebrates of the Mediterranean and Black Sea.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
  • FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Recorded distribution, depth range and habitat association of the species named for this ground.States this directlyPassage read and verified
  • RNLI water safety guidance: cold water shock and Float to Live — Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Water-safety or diver-training authority)Relied on for: Cold water shock and the immersion response, tidal cut-off, and water-safety guidance for shore anglers and small-craft users. Cited for the mechanism, which does not vary by coast.States this directlyPassage read and verified

How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-18.

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