Recreational fishing rules in Galicia
Xunta de Galicia · Regional Department for the Sea
Summary for guidance, checked on 23 October 2026. The official rules are what count: when in doubt, check the source.
Today in Galicia
- Spearfishing: not allowed today (outside May–September, only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays). Next day: Saturday 7 November.
- Regional public holidays count too: check the official calendar.
Licences
Surface (class A)ShoreBoat
From shore or from a leisure boat (7th list). Yearly, or monthly for visitors.
Spearfishing (class C)Spearfishing
Swimming or free-diving. Requires a medical certificate, accident and liability insurance and a weapons licence or federation card.
Charter boats (6th list, class B)Boat
For boats that take anglers out commercially.
Age and requirements: From age 16. Under-16s may fish from the surface without a licence (they must be able to prove their age); spearfishing needs a licence and parental consent.
Get the licenceBag limits
- 5 kg per licence per day; a single fish over the limit may be kept.
- Octopus: 2 per angler per day.ShoreBoat
- From a leisure boat: 5 kg per licence and, with more than 3 licence holders, 16 kg per boat per day.Boat
- Tuna, swordfish and similar: 25 kg per licence and 50 kg per boat per day.Boat
- Only fish and cephalopods (no shellfish), never eels.
Closed seasons
No closed seasons for fish specific to recreational fishing in the rules we checked.
Hours · Distances
- From shore: every day, at any time.Shore
- From boats and spearfishing: only from sunrise to sunset.BoatSpearfishing
- Spearfishing: only on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays; every day at Easter (Thursday to Sunday) and from 1 May to 30 September.Spearfishing
- More than 100 m from beaches with bathers.ShoreBoat
- Boats: more than 100 m from working fishing boats and their marked gear, never hindering professionals.Boat
- Spearfishing: more than 250 m from beaches with bathers and from professional boats and gear.Spearfishing
No-fishing zones or zones with their own rules
- Spearfishing is banned in marine reserves, ports and their access channels.Spearfishing
- Spearfishing is banned inside every ría, landward of the line between its headlands: Ribadeo, Viveiro, O Barqueiro, Ortigueira, Ferrol, Ares-Betanzos, A Coruña, Corme-Laxe, Camariñas, Corcubión, Muros-Noia, Arousa, Pontevedra, Aldán, Vigo and Baiona.Spearfishing
- Spearfishing is banned within 250 m of the Coelleiras, Farallóns, Ansarón, Aguillóns, Sisargas, Lobeiras and As Basoñas islands.Spearfishing
- Os Miñarzos (Lira) and Ría de Cedeira marine reserves have their own rules.
- No fishing at river mouths and passage areas during the salmon and sea-trout migration.ShoreBoat
Tackle · Bait
- Per licence: 2 rods or handlines with up to 6 hooks (lures count as hooks), 2 squid jigs, 2 garabetas and a gaff; a landing net as an aid.ShoreBoat
- Spearfishing: hand or mechanical spearguns. Scuba gear and scooters are banned, as is carrying a speargun and diving cylinders on board together.Spearfishing
- Lights to attract fish are banned.
- For bait, with a surface licence: 50 polychaete worms, 40 crabs (marbled and green shore crab), 200 g of sand hoppers and 100 g of shrimp per day (common prawn banned).ShoreBoat
Also
- Fishing from a kayak is not allowed: it counts as a floating device, not a 6th or 7th list boat.Boat
- Licences from other regions are valid in Galicia, following its rules.
All along the coast
- Sea bass, pollack, sole, hake and albacore, among others: log every catch in the PescaREC app within 24 hours, including those you release.
- Selling or trading your catch is banned.
- If a fish is under the minimum size, return it alive.
Minimum sizes
Common species in Galicia. Fish are measured from the snout to the tip of the tail; squid and cuttlefish by the mantle.
Offshore: national rules
Beyond the baselines (the straight line joining the headlands) the waters are outer waters, ruled by Royal Decree 347/2011.
- Licences are still issued by a region; from shore you follow the rules of the region whose coast you fish.
- Sea bass: 42 cm in the Cantabrian Sea and Northwest.
- From boats: handline, rod, trolling line, volantín and squid jig; at most 2 electric reels per boat.Boat
- 300 m from professional fishing boats (500 m from pole-and-line tuna fishing), 148 m from their gear and 200 m from aquaculture sites.BoatSpearfishing
- Attracting fish is banned, especially with lights, except chumming with small pelagics.BoatSpearfishing
- Spearfishing: free-diving by day only, buoy within 25 m, speargun unloaded out of the water and no diving gear on board; lights (except a hand torch) and scooters banned.Spearfishing
- Species under special protection (annex II): the boat needs an authorisation from the General Secretariat for Fisheries.Boat
Recent changes
The latest changes to recreational fishing rules on the coast.
20 March 2026 · Spain
PescaREC becomes mandatory: sea bass, pollack, sole, hake and albacore must be logged within 24 hours, even when released.
Real Decreto 214/2026 (PescaREC)28 July 2020 · Spain
Sea bass: 42 cm minimum size for recreational fishing in the Cantabrian Sea and Northwest.
Real Decreto 347/2011 (aguas exteriores)
Every morning we check the Spanish Official Gazette and the official bulletins of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands for changes; the other regions' rules are reviewed by hand periodically.
Rules: Decree 211/1999 and Order of 27 July 2012 (sizes)