Scuba diving in Croatia

What do you need to know about diving in Croatia?

Combining sailing vacation on a catamaran and scuba diving can be a win-win combination for all diving lovers. Croatia offers an unreal amount of scuba diving places - 1000 islands, calm and crystal clear sea, plenty of shipwrecks, underwater caverns, pillars, and canyons are all waiting to be explored. 

Croatian underwater hides over 116 locations of sunken ancient ships, shipwrecks from II. world war, reefs and caves.

Scuba diving in the territorial sea of the Republic of Croatia is regulated by the law. By it, scuba diving can be done for the purpose of recreation and sport individually or organized by registered diving centers.

 diving shipwreck Croatia

 

Organized diving

For organized diving in the Republic of Croatia, it is necessary to be a member of a diving center, a diving association, or other legal or natural person registered for performing underwater activities in the Republic of Croatia.

 

Individual diving

For individual diving in the Republic of Croatia, it is necessary to obtain a permit for individual diving, which can be done at any port cape (Pula, Rijeka, Senj, Zadar, Šibenik, Split, Ploče, or Dubrovnik) or port captainship.

It is advisable to contact port captain's personnel for a term-related agreement, especially prior to the start of the season when the highest interest is required for obtaining approval for individual diving.

You can check the port captain's contacts at the Ministry of Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure website.

Diving in croatia

 

What is the cost of diving license?
 

Scuba Diver, around 2 days 260,00 EUR 1950,00 HRK
Open Water Diver, 3 – 4 days 420,00 EUR 3150,00 HRK
Upgrade Scuba Diver do Open Water Diver, around 2 days 240,00 EUR 1800,00 HRK
Advanced Open Water Diver, 5 dives 340,00 EUR 2550,00 HRK

 

What are the rules of safe diving?

Diving areas must be clearly marked by setting are or orange buoy in the center of the area, or by displaying a diving flag from a high place on the boat being used to dive from. You may dive in most places along the Adriatic, but there are some areas where diving is restricted, forbidden, or requires a special license.

 
Diving is forbidden and not allowed:
  • in ports, entrances to ports, anchorage areas, and areas frequented by heavy traffic
  • diving is not allowed in special marine reserves and nature parks such as Maloston Bay, Lim Channel, and Telascica and in the national parks of Brijuni and Krka
  • within 100 meters of military ships at anchor or guarded military installations

 

Areas requiring a special permit are the Kornati islands, Mljet and Telascica. Permits are issued by the park authorities. You may dive organized on Brijuni islands.
Areas that require a special license issued by the Ministry of Culture and where you may only dive under the supervision of a licensed diving centre are: Vis Archaeological Zone (the islands of Vis, Bisevo, Svetac and Brusnik), Lastovo Archaeological Zone (the islands of Susac, Kopište, Lastovo and the islet groups of Donji Skolji and Vrhovnjaci), Palagruža Archaeological Zone (all the islands and islets), Mljet Archaeological Zone (300 meters from the coast of the island and all the islands, islets and rocks within 2,000 meters of the coast), the archaeological zones around the islands of Cres, Kakanj, Krapanj, Ilovik, Unije, Mali Losinj, Osor, Susak, Rogoznica, Premantura (near Pula) and shipwreck sites such as Szent Istvan (Premuda), Coriolanus (Novigrad, Istra), Baron Gautsch (Sv. Ivan na Puéini, Istra), 8-57 [Peljesac), the wreck of the TA 45, Francesca di Rimini (island of Kaprija), the B-24 plane Wrsar), the Hans Schmidt (Rovinj) and the Flamingo (Pula); and the archaeological sites of Zirja and Cavtat.
 

Guidelines for safe diving

  • Never ever dive alone
  • Always mark your diving location
  • Do not collect „souvenirs“
  • Do not touch marine organisms, do not feed them or disturb them in any way
  • Make sure your equipment is well maintained and serviced
  • Make a diving plan which includes time, depth, minimal air pressure in bottles, diving direction, and emergency procedure
  • If you come across any dangerous or explosive items, don’t touch them, but notify the police or port authority
  • Abide by all laws connected to diving

 

Diving supervision is under the jurisdiction of port authorities, maritime police and the maritime ministry. For not abiding by the rules, fines are up to 2.000,00 EUR.

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