Los Hervideros, Lanzarote
Rock mark · Salt water · in Lanzarote
A stretch of black basaltic lava cliff on Lanzarote's exposed west coast, undercut into caves and blowholes by the swell, with deep water immediately below and no beach or landing anywhere along it.
Safety: cliffs and rock platforms — can cause serious injury or death. One more point applies here.
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 · 4
- Common octopusEstablished quarry1 placeLos Hervideros, LanzaroteOver rock mark
- White seabreamEstablished quarry1 placeLos Hervideros, LanzaroteOver rock mark
Greater amberjackSeasonal1 placeLos Hervideros, LanzaroteOver rock markObserved Jan–Feb, Sept–Dec
Common dentexRepeatedly reported1 placeLos Hervideros, LanzaroteOver rock mark
What these strengths mean
- Established quarry
- 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.
- Repeatedly reported
- Several independent public accounts. Enough to say it happens more than once; not enough to call it a fishery.
- Places, accounts and sources are counted separately
- A fish documented once at each of six marks is still documented once at each of six marks. Breadth is reported as a place count and never raises the strength, and sources are deduplicated across places so one publisher covering a whole coast counts as one. A fishery account is a source describing the fishing; a recorded catch is a report of a specific catch. They are counted apart because they are not the same evidence.
How people fish it
Practised here: Sea fishing.
Methods the sources name for this ground. Each one is explained in full on its own page.
- Float fishing
Suspending a bait at a controlled depth beneath a buoyant indicator — the most visual, most controllable and most widely applicable method in angling.
- Spinning
Casting an artificial lure and retrieving it so that it moves like something alive — the most direct form of lure fishing.
The ground and the water
- The ground
- A stretch of black basaltic lava cliff on Lanzarote's exposed west coast, undercut into caves and blowholes by the swell, with deep water immediately below and no beach or landing anywhere along it.
- Exposure
- Takes Atlantic swell directly on a coast with no shelf to slow it, which is why the sea explodes through the undercuts and gives the place its name.
- Depth
- Deep immediately: the volcanic slope continues below the surface and drops away steeply within a very short distance.
Safety
Cliffs and rock platforms — Can cause serious injury or death
Anglers are swept from rock platforms by individual large sets rather than by the average sea, which means the conditions that kill frequently look survivable for the twenty minutes before they arrive. Wet rock, weed and a swell running onto a sloping platform remove any chance of recovery.
What reduces it: Watch the water for a full set cycle before committing to a position, know the escape route and how long it takes, wear a flotation aid rather than carry one, never fish a platform alone, and treat a rising swell forecast as a reason not to go rather than a reason to be careful.
Sun, dehydration and fatigue — Can cause injury needing treatment
Long summer sessions on shadeless rock produce dehydration and heat exhaustion, and both degrade judgement and coordination well before they produce collapse, on ground where both are what keep somebody safe.
What reduces it: Carry substantially more water than the session appears to need, fish the ends of the day rather than the middle of it in high summer, and treat shade and a stopping time as part of the plan.
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.
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 Canary Islands autonomous government's fisheries department, which administers recreational sea fishing licensing and rules in Canarian waters.
- The management authority of the marine reserve around the northern islets and La Graciosa, for zoning and permitted activity within it.
- The Spanish national fisheries administration for offshore waters and for matters reserved to it.
- The local island council and harbour authorities for shore and harbour access arrangements.
Nearby fishing
Other publicly documented places within about 40 km, by distance. Positions are approximate public geography and are never exact marks.
- El Golfo and Janubio — 2–5 km · Rock platform
- Papagayo and Playa Blanca — 10–25 km · Cove
- Playa Quemada, Lanzarote — 10–25 km · Cove
- Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote — 10–25 km · Harbour wall
- Corralejo — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
- La Santa, Lanzarote — 25–40 km · Rock platform
- Arrecife and Playa Honda — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
- El Cotillo, Fuerteventura — 25–40 km · Harbour wall
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.