Scuba Diving on the Russian Pacific Coast
In 1860 Russian Naval ship ‘Manchur’ landed 3 officers and 28 soldiers, who were assigned to establish a post named later ‘Vladivostok’, which in Russian means ‘Rule the East’. After beginning of the construction of the Great Trans-Siberian Railroad 1n 1891 the name Vladivostok became more recognizable worldwide. Since the last century Vladivostok is the main Russian naval base in the Pacific. That is why city was closed for visiting by the foreigners for all the Soviet Era till January, 1992. From the ‘ Iron Curtain’ time the image of the city widely appeared as big harbor filled up by rusting nuclear submarines. Vladivostok is the home port of hundreds fishing, merchant, research and naval ships, but there is no ‘nukes’ in its harbor.
Scuba Diving on the Russian Pacific Coast

In 1860 Russian Naval ship ‘Manchur’ landed 3 officers and 28 soldiers, who were assigned to establish a post named later ‘Vladivostok’, which in Russian means ‘Rule the East’. After beginning of the construction of the Great Trans-Siberian Railroad 1n 1891 the name Vladivostok became more recognizable worldwide. Since the last century Vladivostok is the main Russian naval base in the Pacific. That is why city was closed for visiting by the foreigners for all the Soviet Era till January, 1992. From the ‘ Iron Curtain’ time the image of the city widely appeared as big harbor filled up by rusting nuclear submarines. Vladivostok is the home port of hundreds fishing, merchant, research and naval ships, but there is no ‘nukes’ in its harbor.

Since Russian government has lifted up the status of the ‘closed city’, Vladivostok started getting more attention as a place for recreation. Vladivostok with over 800,000 population is situated at 43.09. northern latitude (similar to Nice), and 130.50. eastern longitude . There is 7 hours time difference between Vladivostok and Moscow. That is why more and more inhabitants of Russian Far East prefer to come down to Vladivostok area, or just stay in their home area for the summer vacation, instead of going to the traditional for the Russians recreational areas, such as the Black sea shore. Another special reason for the Russian divers to dive around Vladivostok area is the diving conditions. Bay of Peter the Great, where Vladivostok is located, is really unique place, where temperate and subtropical marine life occurs. Over 2000 species of invertebrates, over 200 species of fish, over 300 species of birds and about 20 species of marine mammals were counted by scientists in the Bay of Peter the Great.

The most commonly asked questions about diving in any new dive cite, especially if it’s in Russia, are about the water temperature, underwater visibility and water movement. Water temperature in the area is in range from -1.7 C in February up to 23 C in August, providing conditions from ice diving to warm water diving within July - September period, which is the best time for diving. Visibility around offshore islands vary anywhere from 10 to 35 meters. The tide range is not more than 0.5 meters, so water currents may be ignored in terms of affecting SCUBA diving. All mentioned above natural factors are responsible for the Bay of Peter the Great being Mecca for divers, coming from all over the Russia.

Looking back to the Russian sport diving history.
According to the estimation made in the middle 80’s by the former USSR Federation of Underwater Sports, there were over 45000 Federation’s members with basic diving certification. At that time, hundreds of dive clubs, sponsored by state owned enterprises, universities and colleges, were located in all the major country cities. Every summer season dozens of self dependent land based dive expeditions, formed by dive clubs, were spread out on Bay of Peter the Great shore line. Until 1990 Russians were not able to travel overseas because of political reasons. So, it was summer holiday expedition time for dive clubs members first time I was involved in this type of diving expeditions in 1969, at age 13. They were supplied by Russian made equipment, poor designed in 60’s, distributed among the clubs by Society for Assisting Army, AirForce and NAVY (DOSAAF). This Society was also responsible for recreational divers training. As for individual amateur divers, especially from small cities or from countryside, it was not a good time for them.

There was no retail for SCUBA diving equipment, all SCUBA gear was exclusively distributed to the dive clubs. Because of the planned economy all orders for equipment have been limited by availability and should have been placed two years in advance. Hopefully, my country will never go back to plan economy. With free market economy situation for recreational diving is getting much better. Project with establishing dive center in Vladivostok was started by a few enthusiastic divers, including myself, in 1990. Since we’ve become the PADI dive center (first and still the only one in the former USSR) named ‘ Marine Technology ’, in JAN 1993 my overseas correspondents stooped asking too much detail about equipment and training requirements for planned diving trips to Russia. Vladivostok area is still quite away from the beaten passes of international diving traffic, but this area has been dove by Americans, Japanese, Austrians, Italians even BBC movie team, but no Germans yet. BBC was here to make a filming of the Giant Pacific Octopus in Far Eastern State Marine Reserve, which is the most attractive area of the Bay of Peter the Great.

Diving in Far Eastern State Marine Reserve.
Bay of Peter the Great is 55600 square kilometers of water surface, with 1700 kilometers of shoreline, including a few dozens of islands. The most untouched by men’s activity part of the bay, with area of 630 square kilometers, in 1978 was announced as a territory of the first and only one in Russia, the Far Eastern State Marine Reserve. The heart of the marine reserve is Rimsky-Korsakov archipelago distanced from Vladivostok by 60 kilometers. It was named not after the classic Russian composer, but after his elder brother, who was the Russian Naval officer. He took part in exploration of the Russian Far East in the middle of the last century. There are the great photo and video opportunity both above below and above the water. The majority of the photos used in this article were taken while SCUBA diving in Marine Reserve, which is very restricted area. Only two dive recreational operators are permitted to go inside the borders of the Marine Reserve. No camping, fishing and samples collecting are allowed. Typically during 5 -7 days trip within Marine Reserve borders recreational expeditions members were able to see just a few other people there, such as marine biologists or Marine Reserve Rangers.

The most attractive type of diving in Marine Reserve area is wall diving down to 40 meters, covered by pink carbon algae, sea anemones, giant mussels, sponges and other marine life. Giant mussels - Crenomytilus Grayanus - and sea anemones - Metridium Senile - form colonies, with biomass reaching up to 40 kilograms of living substance per square meter. Giant mussels were commercially harvested by divers, but in some places it’s still possible to find monsters aged up to 120 years and sized over 20 cm. Very colorful starfishes, such as Evasteria Retrifera and over dozen of other species of starfishes included Asterias Amurensis - deadly starfish for clams and scallops, occasionally introduced in Victoria, are very common and plentiful. One of the main attraction for divers is meeting with Giant Octopus Dophleini. It reaches 40 -50 kilograms of weight, with regular weight of 20 - 25 kilos. Usually this shy giant lives in the holes under big rocks below 20 -25 meters depth. In some places in the marine reserve, it is very common to count 3 to 5 animals during one tank dive. One of the prettiest for underwater photographer is octopus neighbor - Sniders Warbonnet. Local divers call this fish policeman, for the habit to come to diver to inspect what this alien is doing in it’s living area. This fish is responsible for almost every octopus cut off tips of tentacles. One of the best dive spots are the wrecks. Near Karamzin island, there was former Soviet Air Force target shooting area. The most attractive wreck is W.W.II Japanese destroyer resting-rusting at the depth of 6 down to 24 meters. Hydroids Solanderia sp., which look like fan corrals, cover wrecks superstructure, making a good spot for photography. Our dive team did a few non resultative dives, trying to find some artifacts to help in ships identification. Hopefully, in coming season we’ll be more lucky with wreck exploring.

Short story on Alaskan king crab.
( Paralythodes Kamchatica )
This crab is one of the main objects for fishing industry, harvested by trapping or netting along Kamchatka peninsula, Sakhalin island, Ochotsk Sea and Russian shore of Sea of Japan. It also is harvested by Alaskan fishermen. This is the deep water crustacean with average depth of the habitat around 200-300 meters. The approximate age for adult species ready for harvesting is 10-12 years. The regular size of the adult Alaskan crab species is 25 cm for carapax and over ` meter for whole body. The best time to see this creatures is March -April. At that time they come to shallow water (9-15 meters) for spawning. With some luck, a diver may expect to see up to 15 couples of this impressive giants. The only inconvenience is the water temperature at that time. The water temperature does not exceed 1 -2 C. During this time a diver can see peaceful couples of Alaskan crabs sitting under the boulders or traveling in a strange manner. Usually male is holding the female’s claws by his claws, making her motionless. At the very end of the spawning season male Alaskan crabs fight for the lacking female. When the water temperature increases, the Alaskan crabs migrate to lower depth were temperature is low and stable. As a memory about this event divers can find 1 to 3 years juvenile Alaskan crabs hiding among giant mussels and anemones.