Punta Arenas (Biobío) tide times

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived.

Model-derived from a global ocean grid. Useful indication; expect about ±45 minutes on average vs. a local harmonic gauge, individual stations vary widely. See /methodology for per-region detail. Not for navigation.

Conditions as of 00:00 local time. Refreshes daily.

Predictions: Open-Meteo Marine (MeteoFrance SMOC, 0.08° grid) — heights relative to MSL (not chart datum / LAT). Model-derived. · Not for navigation.

The angler tradition for major/minor fishing windows: major ≈3-hour windows around moon transit and opposition; minor ≈2-hour windows around moonrise and moonset. Times are America/Santiago local. Folk tradition, not a scientific forecast.

Next spring tide on Sun 17 May (range 1.7m). Last neap on Fri 15 May. Next neap on Thu 21 May.

Spring tides cluster around new and full moons (biggest swings). Neap tides land on quarter moons (smallest swings). See the spring tide and neap tide glossary entries for the why.

Punta Arenas in the Biobío Region — not to be confused with the far southern city of the same name in Magallanes — is a small coastal point on the western shore of the Arauco Peninsula, roughly 60 km SW of Concepción. The point is a rocky headland that projects into the Bay of Arauco; the surrounding area is one of the most productive coastal fishing zones in central Chile. The name refers to the sandy beach immediately north of the headland, not to the rocky point itself. The tidal regime here is mixed semidiurnal, spring range approximately 1.5–2.0 m above Chart Datum — consistent with the broader Biobío coast. The Bay of Arauco to the south is a significant geographic feature: the bay is semi-enclosed by the Arauco Peninsula to the west and the Concepción coast to the north, and it focuses incoming South Pacific swell from the SW. Swell energy concentrating into the Bay of Arauco is the same mechanism that produced the elevated 2010 tsunami run-ups at some points on the Arauco Peninsula shore. The rocky intertidal and subtidal zone at Punta Arenas (Biobío) is one of the richest fishing grounds on the Chilean central coast. Congrio (Genypterus chilensis), the prized cusk eel, inhabits the rocky reef at 5–30 m depth and is the target of both commercial and artisanal fishing from this coast. Shore fishing for congrio from the headland rocks requires long casts to reach the deeper reef zones; the productive window is the incoming tide from one hour after the predicted low through to two hours before the high, when the current sweeps bait along the reef edges. Corvina (Cilus gilberti) are also abundant in this area and respond more strongly to the tide state — large corvina tend to follow the bait over the rocky shelf on the flood. The kelp beds (Macrocystis pyrifera) off the Arauco Peninsula rocky coast are the basis of a commercial kelp harvest used in food and cosmetics manufacturing; the kelp industry operates from several small ports along the Arauco coast. Drying racks for harvested kelp are visible along the coastal road from Concepción through the Arauco Peninsula. The coastal road from Concepción south through Penco, Lota, and Arauco to Cañete passes Punta Arenas (Biobío) as part of the Ruta de la Costa Biobío, a designated coastal scenic route. The headland gives clear views over the Bay of Arauco and south to the Arauco Peninsula. SHOA publishes Chilean tide tables with Talcahuano as the regional reference station. Predictions here: Open-Meteo Marine, ±45 min / ±0.2–0.3 m. The Ruta de la Costa Biobío (Coastal Route Biobío) is the regional government's designation for the road connecting Concepción south through Penco, Lota, and Arauco to Cañete and Lebu. The Punta Arenas headland is one of the viewpoints on this route; the road above the headland gives clear views SW over the Bay of Arauco and the approach to the open Pacific. The Arauco Peninsula is also the site of one of Chile's major coal and industrial heritage areas — Lota's underground coal mine (Chiflón del Diablo, now a museum) extends beneath the Bay of Arauco. The Arauco Peninsula's coastal road (partially sealed) continues south from the Punta Arenas headland to Arauco town and then southeast toward the Tirúa and Cañete coast, where the Pacific-facing beaches produce consistent surf. The coastal scenery from the road south of the Punta Arenas headland includes views of the open Bay of Arauco with the Biobío headlands on the far shore; the same bay that amplified the 2010 tsunami energy also focuses the SW groundswell that makes the south Arauco Peninsula consistently surfable.