Reefwander
Mana island's rocky headland and cliffs rising above the Adriatic under a clear sky — Kornati Islands.

Kornati Islands · Croatia · Reef

Mana

One of nine zones where the park authorises diving

Photo: Zoran Kurelić Rabko · CC BY-SA 3.0

Mana is one of the nine zones inside Kornati National Park where scuba diving is authorised. Individual diving is prohibited here, so the dive runs with an organiser licensed by the park, under a 40 metre ceiling, and the site is reached by boat like everything else in the park.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Mana: typical dive to 40 m (to 130 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit40 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 50 m (164 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

43.8013° N, 15.2702° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.

The dive

Everything at Mana starts with the permit. Individual scuba diving inside Kornati National Park is prohibited, so the dive is booked through an organiser under contract with the park, who runs the boat out to the zone. Mana is on the park's published list of the nine zones where diving is allowed, alongside Kornat (Opat - Tanka Prisliga), Samograd, Oključ, Mala Panitula, Vela Panitula, Rašip, Kasela and Borovnik.

The park's ceiling, not the seabed, sets the plan: 40 metres is the greatest depth allowed for diving anywhere in Kornati National Park, and the dive is run inside that. Night diving between 19:00 and 07:00 is not allowed, so the dive happens in daylight, after the boat ride out from Zadar, Šibenik or Murter. No depth profile, visibility figure or current reading is published for this site, so the shape of the dive is whatever the organiser briefs on the day.

Marine life and season

The sources we used don't single out particular species here.

Month-by-month season rating for Mana
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Off-seasonOff-seasonFairGoodGoodPrimePrimePrimePrimeGoodFairOff-season

Season follows Kornati Islands: The park licenses diving Apr–Oct, warmest Jul–Sep; the bura wind closes the exposed outer walls at short notice.

Know before you go

  • No depth profile, current or visibility is published for this site: agree the plan and the maximum depth with the park-licensed organiser at the briefing.

Dive videos

Kornati Mana Bougainville Diving · Rudi H on YouTube

Questions divers ask

Do you need a permit to dive at Mana?+

Yes. Individual scuba diving inside Kornati National Park is prohibited, and dives are run by organisers licensed by the park. Mana is one of the nine zones where the park authorises diving.

How deep can you dive at Mana?+

The park sets one ceiling for the whole archipelago: 40 metres is the greatest depth allowed for diving in Kornati National Park, and that applies at Mana.

Sources

  1. Diving and snorkelling - Kornati National Park — Kornati National Park (official)
  2. Kornati National Park — Wikivoyage
  3. Mana (isola) — Wikipedia (it)
  4. Mana, Kornati (OpenStreetMap) — OpenStreetMap

Photo credits

More dive sites in Kornati Islands

Red gorgonian colonies on the seabed instead of the wall

10–45 madvanced

Wall

A terrace at 26 m packed with red fan corals and sponges

20–26 mintermediate

Uninhabited islet on the park's authorised diving list

to 40 mintermediate

Wall

A step at 30 m falling to a fan-coral plateau at 45 m

30–45 madvanced

Yellow gorgonians on one face of the wall, red on the other

to 25 mintermediate

Beginner platform above a gorgonian drop-off starting at 30 m

to 30 mintermediate

Wall

Gorgonians in several colours at 35 m below a cup-coral slope

20–35 madvanced

A small sponge-lined cavern at 22 m off the lighthouse islet

to 22 mintermediate

Similar dives elsewhere

Reef

Adventure Reef

Kemer & Tekirova · Turkey

The fourth of the Three Islands, which never broke the surface

to 35 madvanced

Reef

Cala Galiota

Cabrera Archipelago · Spain

A school of barracuda that can number in the hundreds

6–40 madvanced

Reef

Calabunita

Al Hoceima · Morocco

A 2 m to 41 m profile that suits both new and deep-trained divers

2–41 mintermediate

Reef

Cap de Llebeig

Cabrera Archipelago · Spain

Large rock formations crowded with groupers and barracuda

7–35 madvanced