Kornati Islands · Croatia · Wall · Wreck
Plic Grmeni
An overhanging sponge wall down to a 35 m wooden wreck at 42 m
Area photo: ANDREJ NEUHERZ · CC BY-SA 3.0
A drop-off at 24 m falling away as a slightly overhanging wall covered in sulphur sponges, with the remains of a roughly 35 m long ship lying at 42 m. Gorgonian hills and fields sit to either side of the wreck, and several anchors are scattered along the wall at various depths. The ship is not named or dated in the published description.
Where it is and how deep
43.6194° N, 15.6250° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The drop-off is at 24 m and runs to the east, so the dive starts on the shallower rock and rolls over the edge. The wall below is slightly overhanging and full of sulphur sponges, and several anchors lie along it at various depths, which gives the descent something to read on the way down rather than a blank face of stone.
At 42 m the wall gives up the remains of an approximately 35 m long ship. All the wooden parts are rotten, so what you see is the shape of a hull and the metal parts lying around it rather than a standing structure. To the left and right of the wreck are gorgonian hills and fields, and those are worth as much of the short bottom time as the wreck itself.
The return is the descent in reverse: back up the overhanging wall, past the anchors, onto the rock above the 24 m lip for the shallow end of the profile. Moray eel is the animal logged most often here, with nudibranchs, conger eel, octopus and grouper behind it, and the shallower rock is where the ascent time gets spent.
The wreck
- Vessel
- Unnamed wooden-hulled ship
- Type
- Wooden-hulled ship, approximately 35 m long
- Length
- 35 m (115 ft)
- Cause
- Not published; the source neither names nor dates the ship
- Lies
- At 42 m below the drop-off, wooden parts rotten, metal parts lying around
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Groupers
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Off-season | Off-season | Fair | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Off-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
- The wreck at 42 m is past recreational depth: narcosis and gas planning govern the dive, and the bottom time available is minutes rather than tens of minutes.
- The wall is slightly overhanging, so a diver who loses buoyancy control below the lip has rock above rather than a straight way up.
Questions divers ask
How deep is the wreck at Plic Grmeni?+
The remains lie at 42 m, below a drop-off that starts at 24 m. That puts the wreck past recreational depth, so the dive needs deep or technical training and a planned decompression profile.
Sources
- Plic Grmeni dive site — Scubago
More dive sites in Kornati Islands
Wall
Yellow gorgonians on one face of the wall, red on the other
Reef
A small sponge-lined cavern at 22 m off the lighthouse islet
Wall
Beginner platform above a gorgonian drop-off starting at 30 m
Wreck
An almost undamaged Ju 87 sitting upright at 25 to 27 m
Wreck
A 2018 wreck at 20 m, still being colonised
Red gorgonian colonies on the seabed instead of the wall
One of nine zones where the park authorises diving
A terrace at 26 m packed with red fan corals and sponges
Similar dives elsewhere
Tunnels, canyons and walls down to a plateau facing open water
A shrimp-filled cave at 37 m under a rock headland
Seahorses on the sand in 3 to 10 m, then a wall from 10 to 40 m
One large black-coral branch grows among the gorgonians