The Adriatic sea is rich in underwater landscapes, sunken ships, underwater caves,...
Skin diving as a sport becomes more and more popular year after year. For scuba divers Hvar,Vis,Brać is the islands of numerous possibilities. Under the sea surface many beautiful things are hidden and only divers can reach them... We will present you only few attractive sites in the Hvar,Vis,Brać area, but there is more than enough of other places yet to discover...

Galea 


TYPE: Sailing ship of wooden construction , probably bring type
DEPTH: 50m-55m
STREAM: Mostly weak
VISIBILITY: Mostly good

 

Blue Cave

Biševo is located 5 nautical miles far from Komiza. Today is sparsely inhabited.
The reason for visiting Biševo is the Blue Cave, famous all over the world for its extraordinary beauty. It is situated in the Baluni Bay, surrounded by high rocks full of the holes and caves. The best known opening, low entrance above the sea surface, is leading us to silvery-blue shimmering interior of the Blue Cave. The bay itself is about twenty meters deep, so that anchoring is very difficult. Under the surface the entrance descends to 3 meters of depth and divers can easily enter the channel, which leads to main hall. Beneath the surface the blueness of the cave is not so much apparent as it is when you come up in its interior. The play of light entering through several openings create the overwhelming impression of silvery deep blue color.
After admiring the extraordinary beauty you can pass through the deeper exit, reach the outer sideof the bay and find a steep cliff falling vertically to 50 meters. The tentacles of a spiny lobster are curiously peeping out of any modest-size fissure and to encounter a grouper is also nothing unusua.....

Monkseal'scave

Once Biševo used to be as a habitat of "sea-man", as fisher called the Mediterranean monk seal. Cave on the island witness to that. The biggest of them is Medvidina spilja (Monk seal's cave).
It is located immediately behind the cape Biskup towards the Bay of Baluni and its entrance is visible from the sea. The part above the sea level is 17 meters high. The cave is 160 meters long. Its width at the very entrance is 5-6 meters, so you can enter in smaller boat or in inflatable dinghy. After fifty meters or so the cave becomes narrower and passage is turning to the right. Before the curve there is a rock in the middle of the cave blocking further progress. The only way is to jump in and swim. The passage becomes narrower and lower ending up with a pebble beach. Here you can almost feel the smell of the monk seal mixed with stale air. And while in the darkness of the cave you hold up your lamp to illuminate the way, you can hear the sea lashing and bouncing of the rock and beach, those weird sounds of gurgling creaking and panting - in fact the sea pounds its way through cracks and fissures. Under sea the stone is smooth and, except for some shrimps, pale sponges and cardinal fish, there is no life. Only when you turn towards the exit and reach the area illuminated by sunshine, you will see shoals of fish and become aware of magnificent blue color of the sea.
There are some stone blocks in front of the exit.
If you head toward north-west, you will find yourself in the cove of Trešjavac where the depth is up to 28 meters.

Teti

Teti was a cargo steamship, built in 1883 in Hoboken, USA. She belonged to the Italian company S.I.N.T.A., from Ravenna. On 23rd May 1930 she ran aground at the Island of Mali Barjak, in front of the outer side of Vis island.
The wreck, being about seventy meters long, is lying on the sedimentary bottom. The bow can be spotted at seven meters of depth, so even novice can feel the sensation of wreck diving.
The stern can be found at depth 34 meters. At 20 meters there is a plateau, on which the wreck is lying. You can see the remains of the keel. Enter inside the remains and feed the congers. There are three of them and they are accustomed to sea divers. So don't be frightened if they start swimming towards you, they are just looking for food.
Last time we dove there, the current was so strong we could hardly swim. At the end of the dive we were playing with a school of fish

 VASSILIOS

Greek merchant vessel build in Japan in the 1920. Ship owner changed name to VASSILIOS T. by new owner.

Lenght: 104 m, Beam: 15 m, Height: 8,7 m

On date 19.March, 1939, ship was on her voyege to Venice Italy due rudder error ship crash to the cape of Stupiste, and latter sunk.

Wrack is laying on the right side from 22 - 40 meters depth. It is so big and impressive wreck then when you dive approaching, feel a little bit afraid. Huge cargo hold and very nice bow with ancor eye, and huge ancor with chain.

Island of Host (Roman amphoras)

Along its northern side there are two sities with Roman amphoras from the second century B.C. Large fragments of cemented amphoras lie on the depth 9 neters, and pieces and partly damaged vessels at 15 to 28 meters. The sunken ship obviously transported amphoras of different types and sizes. The site has many fragments os ship's crockery and a wheat grindstone.

   Fortunal

Fishing boat is located on the botom of vertical wall from 30 (optical vison of wreck) to 55 meters of depth. Beside wreck there is very nice wall with rich marine life, at the of bay where wreck is located there is shallow but long cave with pabbles on botom long about 40 meters. 

Green cave

Visitors can enter in the Green Grotto with smaller boat, or diving. Before entering, visitors have better leave underwater lamps in order to enjoy the sea from the spherical vault of the cave and penetrating to a depth of 3-5 meters. The dive starts at the left point 60 m from the entrance to the Green grotto; this is the simpliest anchoring site because it advoids disturbing other visitors. At the depth of 26-35 meters of depth, it is another cave, 20 m deep, resembling the work of modern archiect because of its neat and regular edges. The grotto can be entered from the left or righthand side of the central pillar which separates the two entrances. On the top of cave is a small hole so flair of light came in the dark inside and create green spot on the surface and under water too.

B-17 AIRPLANE

TYPE: Wreck ( heavy bomber )
DIMENSION: L=22,677 m , distance beetwen wings=31,633 ,
DEPTH: 65m-73m
CAUSE: Air defence

Ursus

TYPE: Tugboat
DIMENSION: L=35 m , W=5 m
CAUSE: Sunken by a british submarine
DEPTH: 45m-60m


 BRAK VODNJAKA – PAKLENI OTOCI
The Vodnjak wall is on the west side of the homonymouos islet. It begins at six meters while the sheer rock on the northern side reaches the depth of 55 meters. It is rich in red Gorgonian and various fish school... This site we recommend only to experienced divers....

PLOČICE
 Pločice cliffs are situated on the outer side of the Pakleni islands. The best would be to go under in a shallow water on the north side of the island and diving encircle the whole island toward west. The wall at a depth of 20 m reveals rich animal and plant life...
This site is demanding only if the current is strong.

GRČKA BAY
At a depth of 5 to 10 m there is an entrance to a small cave which resembles to a siphon. Cutting is also visible in the land rocks and you will find it right after the bay of Grčka. This cave is big enough to receive up to five divers at the same time. You can see inside of it plenty of sparkling red cave fish and a particular beauty comes out of glare of colours... This site is suitable for easy diving.

PROMONTORY  PELEGRIN
Near the very entrance to the bay of Pelegrin on the left side, at a depth of 18 m there is a ship sunken during the World War II... The deepest immerging point is approx. 30 m.

PROMONTORY KABAL
It is situated at the east end of the Stari Grad bay. The tunnel at the very end situated below the lighthouse is the most interesting part for diving. It is 25 m long, entrance is at a depth of 9 m while the exit on the other side of promontory is at a depth ot 17 m. Some seven to eight meters from the coast the terrain is sloping 50 meters and this is what makes this terrain particularly interesting for diving... This site is rich in animal and plant life and we  recommend it to experienced divers.

PROMONTORY SMOČIGUZICA
From the coast the cliff reaches the depth of 18 meters and from that point over the edge of terrain is sloping and reaches the depth of 55 meters. This site is rich in plant and animal life and we recommend it to divers at all levels...

TATINJA BAY
 Some 20 m from the coast at the east point of the bay there are remnants of the ship sunk between 1813 and 1815. At a depth of 30 meters there are remnants of pottery of different size and shape. Divers will find interesting not only this ship but also the wall some 10 m high. We recommend this site to divers at all levels...

ZALA LUKA
The wall situated at its western point makes Zala Luka interesting.  At a depth of 3 to 4 meters the wall slightly slopes to a depth of  20 m and then dives to a depth of 50 meters. This site is very rich in fish world. We recommend this site to divers at all levels...

ZEČEVO
The wall is situated at the eastern side of the small island, starts at a depth of 18 meters and the southern side is  steeply sloping to a depth of 45 meters. This site is rich in animal life. We do not recommend this site to beginners.

SEA TEMPERATURES IN THE SOUTH ADRIATIC:
 The sea temperature on Hvar and around the island is rather high all over the year. It reaches its maximum between June and October, with an average temperature of 22°C.The sea temperature and weather conditions are suitable for skin diving during whole year. For the period between June and October we advise you to take full 5mm wetsuit with hood, and during other months at least 6.5mm wet or dry suit.

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Ministry for maritime affairs, traffiCand communications published Recreational diving in Croatia by the rulebook on conducting underwater activities.

In order to dive in the areas which are not off limits, each diver must have a diving license issued by the Croatian divers' association which can be purchased through diving clubs and centers as well as authorized tourist agencies along the entire AdriatiCcoast.

The diving license is valid for one year. The price is 100 kunas, and is issued only to those persons, which have the appropriate diving qualifications from one of the internationally recognized diving schools.

Diving is permitted in prohibited zones only if the diver is accompanied by a diving centre that has a concession license of the Ministry of Culture or national park for that zone for the year 2003.

Diving may be organized or individual.

Organized diving is diving performed exclusively in the company of a guide or a diving instructor verified by the Ministry of Education and Sports of the Republic of Croatia, and organized by a diving centre or a diving club registered in the Republic of Croatia.

Individual diving is performed on the basis of Permits for individual diving. Permits are issued by the Port Authorities. Permits are issued to persons with a valid diver's card of the Croatian Diving Federation for the period of one year from the date of issue. The cost of issuing the Permit is 2400.00 KN.( included in prices)

The central diving organization is the Croatian diving association which through its programs carries out diving training, but along with other project is also an active participant in the protection and preservation of submarine world.

At the Croatian chamber of economy is the group of diving tourism, which is a professional diving association.