The north coast of Menorca
Rock mark · Salt water · in Balearic Islands
An indented coast of dark, older rock on the northern side of Menorca — geologically quite unlike the island's limestone south — with steep cliffs, small deep coves and boulder ground below the surface.
Safety: drowning and immersion — can cause serious injury or death. 2 more points apply 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 · 3
What these strengths mean
- 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.
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.
- 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.
- 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
- An indented coast of dark, older rock on the northern side of Menorca — geologically quite unlike the island's limestone south — with steep cliffs, small deep coves and boulder ground below the surface.
- Exposure
- Takes the tramuntana directly, which is why this side of the island is rougher, cooler and far less developed than the south.
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.
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.
Boat traffic and being seen — Can cause serious injury or death
Recreational and charter boat traffic around the popular coasts is very heavy through the summer, and a spearfisher or a freediver in the water is invisible to it. The clear water that makes the diving worthwhile does nothing to make the diver visible from the surface.
What reduces it: Dive with a marked surface float and flag, keep close to it, and stay well clear of the approaches to harbours, moorings and popular anchorages. Dive with a competent buddy, one up and one down, on every dive.
Rules and access
FishingHQ does not know the current access position here. The Balearic Islands license their own recreational sea, boat and underwater fishing, and the archipelago carries an extensive network of marine reserves and seagrass protections with rules that differ reserve by reserve. Measures, seasons and reserve boundaries change. Check the current position with the Balearic 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 Balearic government's fisheries administration, which licenses recreational sea and underwater fishing.
- The marine reserve administration, where the water is inside a reserve.
- The Govern de les Illes Balears fisheries department, which issues recreational sea fishing and spearfishing licences and sets local rules.
- The managing body of the relevant marine reserve, several of which cover significant areas of the archipelago's coast.
- The port authority or harbour master where fishing takes place from harbour infrastructure.
- The Spanish national fisheries administration for offshore waters and highly migratory species.
- The regional environment authority for posidonia protection and anchoring restrictions.
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
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy. Last reviewed 2026-08-18.