Dive Sites

 

 

 

 

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Listvyanka 

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Diving Conditions:  

Location: in front of Dive Club SVAL, ul. Gorkogo 39

GPS coordinates: 51∞ 51.821′ N, 104∞50.363′E

Shore dive 

Depth: 80-100m 

Type of bottom: rocky, wall

Interests: wall dive, macro life, some sponges 

 

Description:  

The dive site is right across the house of the Dive Club Sval at the main in Listvyanka following the shore of the lake. Members of the club dive here regularly every Saturday. In summer there is lot of surface boat/scooter traffic so surface buoy marker is advisable when diving here. 

 

You swim out of the shore following a shallow shelf (depth 5-6m) for about 100m to the drop off (sval in Russian, hence the name of the club). The wall goes to depths up to 80-100m, we dived to 30m. If  you follow the wall to the right its more vertical and you will find more of the Baikal sponges. There is a little cavern at 25m with a metal trolley inside. If you follow the wall to the left the slope is more gentle with ledges and canyons with less sponges but more of aquatic plants. 

You can also spot lot of Gammaruses, Baikal endemic freshwater shrimp. 

 

Water is generally very clear, visibility at the end of June was about 20m. The temperatures were 6C at surface dropping to 4C at depth. 

 

Listvyanka is only 70km from Irkutsk, which makes it easily accessible for tourists. There are lot of hotels and restaurants near the shore. The increased human activity has also negative side effects, including higher amounts if trash and overgrowth of green algae in the water. The shallow shelf is covered in very thick layer of Spirogyra masses, which Russian divers refer to also as swimming in green “compot”.