The Barents Sea, which borders on Russia and Norway, has a great importance for transport and fishing. Before 1853 it was known as the Murman Sea. The sea's surface area is 1424 km2 with a depth of 600 m. Two big harbours are based in Murmansk and Vardø (Norway).

The Barents Sea is bordered by The White Sea in the south, the Norwegian Sea basin in the west, and by the Arctic Ocean in the north. The Barents Sea never freezes. Diving and fishing are available the whole year round. The underwater world is beautiful in its own way, original and unique. The average water temperature is about +5 °C. In summer it warms up to +12 °C. The sea is rich in zooplankton and phytoplankton, benthon, and dense underwater Laminaria forest (sea girdle); the south coast abounds with seaweed. Likewise up to 115 kinds of fish is found in its cold water.

The important marketable fishes of the sea are lancet fish, sea bass, herring, haddock, cod, halibut, flounder, etc. Here you can find seals, white whales, polar bears, whales, killer whales, walruses, king crabs, dolphins, sea urchins and scallops.



It is common to meet bird colonies on the beach: guillemots, black-legged kittiwakes and common murres. The area is good for mushroom-picking and gathering berries. In winter, from December till the end of January, you can observe the polar night. In summer, from May till October – it is a time of the midnight sun. In addition you can enjoy watching the northern lights.



The primeval beauty of the North captivates you at first sight and stays in you memory forever. It is an inexpressible feeling of unity and fascination with nature! Sheer northern exotica!

Another icy destination that requires a drysuit is the White Sea – a landlocked mass of water in the north of the European part of Russia, and part of the Arctic Ocean. There's a lot of fauna to see and the visibility is great.

Ice diving here can be a real challenge but if you're lucky you can bump into Beluga whales, known as sea canaries.

"Baikal is marvelous, and it is not without reason that Siberians call it not a lake but a sea. Water is extremely transparent so one can see through it like through the air; the color is light turquoise and nice-looking. The shores are mountainous, covered with woods; there is impenetrable and pitch-black wilderness all around. Bears, sables, wild goats and all sorts of wild creatures are in abundance…" - Anton Chekhov

Baikal is an amazing place, the greatest enigma, a miraculous mystery of nature and the most popular photo and diving tours destination in Russia. Baikal's age is around 25-35 million years. They say Baikal is an incipient ocean. Its lengh is 620 km, the width is 24 to 80 km. It is the deepest lake in the world with the maximum depth up to 1642 m (next to Cape Hoboi). 22% of the world's fresh water supply is concentrated in Baikal. Its water is pure, limpid, rich in oxygen and low-mineralized. The shoreline of Baikal is around 2100 km in lengh. The shore's major part consists of a conservation area and national parks. The lake has 27 islands. Olkhon is the biggest one.

So you can enjoy a primordial view of this wonderful lake forever. Baikal is so beautiful and unique that it is fairly considered a gem of Russia and Eastern Siberia. It is a perfect place for those who want to relax, fill with power and energy of nature, dive and fill their photo archives up with excellent pictures.

The Baikal's neighborhood consists of picturesque islands, caves, rocks, an impassable taiga and a unique underwater world. Moreover it has an ethnic flavor, as well as shamanic spots and rites. That's a great idea for spending your next holiday, isn't it?

As one of the country's most untouched diving locations, Kamchatka is also one of the most interesting because it offers an opportunity to dive in a unique underwater world with more than 350 species of fish, seals, sea lions, sea otters, walruses, orcas, and whales. Avachinsky Bay, Starichkov Island, Russian Bay – just a few diving sites popular among local divers.

The weather here is quite unpredictable, while the underwater conditions are no different. Water temperatures can range from -2-14 °C and the visibility might not always be great, from 6 to 10 meters on average. But no one said it's going to be easy – it's the Pacific Ocean after all.

Yes, this probably won't surprise you: The Black Sea is a key diving destination and the warmest diving location in the country - you can even meet dolphins here. Vladimir Putin himself once dived here and even discovered a few ancient artefacts (reportedly a stunt).

Beyond a depth of 150-200 meters there's not much aquatic life to behold due to high levels of hydrogen sulphide, but the upside of this is that shipwrecks remain preserved for much longer, as well as crashed WWII planes. Just off the coast of the Russian city of Novorossiysk there are over 20 shipwrecks, all buried at around 40 meters.

One interesting location is just near the village of Olenevka in Crimea – an underwater museum of Soviet leaders' busts. There's no exceptional flora or fauna around but seeing Lenin, Stalin, and other Bolsheviks underwater is a once in a lifetime experience.