The Straits of Gibraltar is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes with strong winds and tides. There is a constant flow of container ships on the horizon heading east or west into the Mediterranean or over the Atlantic to America whatever the weather.

Tarifa, is situated on the south shores of Spain and there is a small local harbour with constant swell. A little island and spit runs from Tarifa out into the straits where there is a light house on the end to warn oncoming ships.
Tarifa is a haven for kite surfers, wind surfers and surfers. There is a long sandy beach on the west side of Tarifa goes on for miles and attracts surfers from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, England and at the weekends the locals come down to the coast to fish, beach casting from the beach or heading out in small well equipped RIBS into the straits.

The fishing on the coast here is not your typical, pick up your boat from the marina and head out with your friends, but quite different. You launch your small RIB from the beach through the surf. You wear a wetsuit and don’t use rods from the boats but harpoons. When they return after a few hours, they aim for the beach where the trailer is close by, pick up speed, expertly miss the surf and beach the boat then drag it onto the trailer.

I watched this one man today, head down through the surf in his wet suit gear, fins and harpoon on a days fishing by himself. He returned three hours later with a large fin occasionally flapping, headed for the beach and dragged this huge fish out of the water.
Then he headed straight back out for more fishing.

Hope you enjoy these pictures.