Articles

By Alexander Benedik

Every year from May to July Austrian cold waters divers get excited about a special dive site in our country. The site is called “Der Grüne See”—“The Green Lake.”

This lake is a unique place to dive. As the weather gets warmer and the snow starts to melt it trickles down from the mountains and the valley is filled up with crystal clear water. During this time, the valley reaches a water level of up to 11 meters.

The meadow, with all its spring flowers, gets flooded. This means that it is time to head to Styria and put on the drysuit to dive. Due to the crystal clear water the visibility reaches up to 40 meters, perfect for underwater imagery, but the temperature is cold at about 4 to 8 Celsius. If you are wondering how the fish get there—every year fishermen release trout and other fishes into the valley.

The water slowly evaporates, and eventually the valleys will become nearly dry—only for a new flood to start next year. Below is a movie I made, “Water Level 8.0m,” about this year’s flood.