Croatia - Diving the Adriatic

by Jenny Fowler


Mention Croatia and most people will think of Dubrovnik or Split which are popular holiday regions again after being off limits for years due to the disastrous war which followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. The region of North Dalmatia, further up the Adriatic coast, deserves to be better known. The coast is beautiful; offshore, patterns of small rocky islands emerge from bright blue sea. My partner, Charles, and I stayed in the ancient city of Zadar which is on a small peninsula, protected by sea walls and full of narrow stone-paved streets that must be thousands of years old. You can drink beer at a pavement cafe in the Roman forum or go shopping for designer clothes.

We were there to go diving. Croatia is mostly limestone, in fact it is the famous “karst” landscape of dry fractured plains that you might remember from Geography lessons. Rain sinks in and rivers are rare, which is an advantage for divers because there is not much silt to make murky vis. It was September, still pleasantly warm but nowhere was crowded, and the water warm enough to dive in a 5mm wetsuit.

We dived with Zlatna Luka diving centre which is in the marina at Sukosan. This was a car drive from Zadar, but you could stay more locally in a guest house or apartment. People who have houses by the sea rent our rooms to visitors and this would be good if you like finding out about the local culture. The dive centre has plenty of parking space so we unloaded our kit and got it onto the dive boat, Orca, at the quayside nearby. I was glad to see that the boat had a rear platform as I like getting back in easily after a dive. There was also plenty of floor space for kitting up, all under a cover to give sun protection, and a cabin including a toilet – all things that make a big difference to me enjoying a trip. Venci Lonic runs the centre, assisted by his partner Martina. It's a PADI centre but he is also qualified as a BSAC instructor.

Venci is certainly vigilant on safety. I hadn't brought my own kit because of the 20kg weight limit on the flight. The inlet valve on the hired BC was saddle- shaped rather than being a button. I had rather thick gloves (bought for wintery training in British waters) and got a bit of glove in the way of the saddle resulting in a faster descent than I intended. I thought there was a problem with the inlet valve and indicated to Venci who had already come over to me. He did a text-book perfect recovery to the surface and made sure I was back on the boat. Once back, I saw what the problem had been and regretted missing the dive, but it was good to know that a decisive response was available if you were getting into difficulties.



I was ready for the second dive, at a small pine-clad rocky island called Japlenika, near Uglijan Island, which is one of the larger, inhabited islands. We anchored and entered the clear water, finding that the island slopes on down into the sea forming a rocky reef . We followed the slope down and at about 30m we found large fan shaped gorgonians (Paramuricea clavis) growing. I though they were a a rich royal purple colour but the light of a torch showed that really they are a beautiful deep red colour.

We only spent a few minutes here because of the depth. We started exploring back up the slope. The rocky sea bed is clear and light, because it is limestone, and has crevices sheltering gobies and blennies. White, funnel-shaped clusters of the seaweed Padina pavonica swirled gently as we swam. Little groups of Two-banded Sea bream (Diplodus vulgaris) swam and turned, picking for food and reflecting the light from their silvery sides. There were lots of sea cucumbers progressing slowly along the seabed, munching sand. This was good to see as in some countries they have been collected to extinction for the Far Eastern market.

Venci led us to a bit of the seabed which appeared to be brown and furry. Then I realised that there was a big collection of feather stars which moved amazingly quickly when disturbed. Apparently they always collect just in this one special place which doesn't look any different to us but must have something that feather stars like.

We soon found this is the pattern of the diving here; down to about 25 metres it is clear and light with a rocky slope to explore, then at 25-30 metres there is a drop-off and the life changes to much more colourful forms. This was very clear at Big Sister island, which has really good life because it is in Kornati National Park where any sort of fishing is banned. This is enforced; two tough-looking characters turned up on a RIB while we were diving. I thought we were about to be taken hostage, but it turned out they were National Park rangers checking that we were not fishing or collecting from the marine environment.

The boat was anchored near a clear white limestone island that sloped down into the sea. Green scrubby trees clung to the top of the island; sky and sea were clear blue and the gentlest of waves rocked the boat. We dropped into the water and descended, using the anchor line, to white and brown seabed. We finned down the gentle slope to an edge at 20m where rock dropped down forming a wall. Hanging in our group of four we looked down into the dusky blue of the water as it dropped to 55m. Carefully adjusting buoyancy, we gently descended beside the wall. Again we saw the branched red gorgonians. Playing a dive torch over the rock revealed a brilliantly coloured ecosystem of encrusting organisms; sponges, bryozoans in red, yellow, green and purple. Fish hid in crevices or searched for food on the rocks. Venci lead the group along. The descent took us below 30metres and all too soon computers indicated we should start moving back upwards. Regaining the rocky slope we zigzagged across at about 20m searching for octopus. They live in holes in the limestone, perfectly camouflaged as their skin takes on the pattern of the rock, and only revealed by the movement of an eye scanning the seabed for food. Disturbed by our presence, an octopus moved, revealing the rows of suckers on a neatly curled tentacle, and melted away deeper into his rocky hideaway. Thanks to the rangers he won't end up on a dinner plate and I'd like to revisit him some day.

A “sea ball” a clump of, well, ball-shaped seaweed ( Codium bursa) was gently lifted by Venci to introduce the small lobster beneath to three divers – hopefully this lobster will survive to grow and breed, some of the offspring migrating to areas where they will be caught and cooked, but others staying in this safe haven.

We enjoyed progressing gradually up the slope, watching colourful chromis and wrasse. The steady ascent made for a safe profile returning from this quite deep dive.

Limestone is famous for dissolving over thousands of years to form caves and there are plenty here that would challenge a skilled cave diver. I don't dive in overhead environments but the next dive, on the island of Garmenjak, involved caverns where we always had a clear view back to open blue water. We used torches to see the life on the sheltered walls. The walls of the caverns were encrusted with colourful organisms even at shallow depths. Crevices and overhangs showed their vivid colours in torchlight, with fish and lobsters holding their little protected spaces. Beautiful dramatic views appeared as we moved from one cavern to another. A rope led off into a deep cave from our cavern – too deep and dangerous for me, but one to excite the technical cave diver. There was lots of colour here at depths from near the surface to 24m maximum. Maybe the colourful organisms need protection from sunlight, rather than depths of 20+ metres as such.

Returning to the boat across the open limestone seabed we saw three more octopus. One was having an interaction with a group of small fish, blowing water at them. I would have liked more time to watch what this was about, but time was running out as we used most of it had exploring the caves. Small scorpionfish were amazingly well camouflaged against the seabed, only visible when they moved. It was tempting to take a lovely little abalone shell with a rainbow-coloured mother of pearl lining which lay on the seabed.
Back to the boat I settled on a bench and the longish trip back to Zadar seemed to go by in a few peaceful minutes.

Nature is my big interest in diving but there is some exciting history here too. Venci has studied wartime records to find out the story behind a B 24 Liberator that crashed in the Zadar channel. Some of the USAF fliers escaped the crash and were looked after by local people, made it home and are still alive today. Venci has met some of them and also recorded accounts from a local woman who saw the crash and the people who hid the airmen The bomber lies in 40m and there can be some current, which puts it outside my comfort zone, but my partner Charles who is an Advanced diver not only dived it but took a photo of the identification number that is still visible on the side, proving the link with the wartime events.

New wrecks are still being discovered as there has not been a great deal of diving in this area. Venci posts details of finds on the dive centre website. So, this could make a trip here exciting for a club group who want to do something a bit different, that hasn't been dived and described hundreds of times before.
So there is plenty of interest in the diving around Zadar. The underwater landscape is very memorable, and there is lots of life especially at the smaller end of the size range – we did not see any really big fish, but found lots to watch and photograph on every dive. Topside, the coastal scenery is lovely. For a change you can drive up into the mountains which have a stark beauty all of their own,you can take in history and culture, or you can shop and enjoy cafe life. So divers and non-diving friends and partners could all have a great week in this part of Croatia.

Practicalities about diving in Croatia

The water is reasonably warm in summer and autumn and visibility usually good. Some sites are quite shallow, so you can dive here with any level of qualification. To enjoy the deeper sites a Sports Diver qualification is useful.
We flew from Gatwick to Zadar but at the moment there are no direct flights to Zadar. This link gives a page of up-to-date information about flights, including low-cost, going to Croatia: Website

Information from the Croatian National Tourist Office, 2 Lanchesters, 162-164 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 9ER
tel 020 8563 7979
email info@cnto.freeserve.co.uk
Website

We dived with dive centre Zlatna Luka, Bibinje, Sukosan, Zadar, Croatia.
Their website is Here, email info@diving-zlatnaluka.net
telephone from UK 00 385 91 252-8021

Car hire starts at around £160 a week for a small car from Sixt car rental website You can collect and return at the airport. A new motorway links Zadar with Split (which has flights coming in from the UK). The motorway bypasses the coastal road, the Magistrala, which gets crowded in summer. There are tolls on the motorway – we paid about £2 for 55 kilometres.

Time difference: +1 hour

The tap water is safe to drink.

Electricity is from continental round-pin sockets so you need an adaptor. We took a six-way socket to plug into it to allow for charging torch batteries and camera batteries at the same time.

Currency is the kuna £1= 9.81kuna. We found that things like meals out were good value, costing a bit less than at home.

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