Dive sites in Latvia

The Northern Forts are the remains of a massive Russian Imperial military complex built in the late 1800s along the Liepaja coastline. Over decades, coastal erosion and rising sea levels have pulled sections of the fortress into the Baltic Sea, creating an otherworldly underwater landscape of collapsed walls, gun platforms, and brick archways. The combination of military history and natural reclamation makes this unlike any typical wreck or reef dive.

A drysuit is strongly recommended even in summer, as Baltic water temperatures rarely exceed 18 degrees Celsius at the surface and can be significantly colder at depth. A good torch is essential given the typically limited visibility of 3 to 8 meters. Gloves and a hood are standard. Because the site is shallow with a maximum depth around 12 meters, standard recreational equipment is sufficient, though a reel can be useful for navigation among the structures.

The diving season runs from June to September, with July and August offering the warmest water temperatures around 16 to 18 degrees Celsius and the calmest sea conditions. Visibility is variable year-round but tends to be best in early summer before algae blooms peak. Wind direction significantly affects conditions here, so checking forecasts and diving on calm days with offshore winds will give you the best experience.

The waters offshore from Ventspils contain at least a dozen documented wrecks within recreational diving depth, though the exact number changes as new sites are discovered through sonar surveys. The most popular sites include early 20th-century merchant steamers and cargo vessels, some sitting upright and largely intact on the sandy seabed at depths between 18 and 28 metres. Not all wrecks have been positively identified, which adds an element of historical detective work to the diving. Local dive operators maintain GPS coordinates for the accessible sites.

Visibility at the Ventspils offshore wrecks typically ranges from 5 to 10 metres, occasionally improving to 15 metres during settled summer weather. Water temperature in the diving season from June through August ranges from 12 to 17 degrees at the surface, dropping to 4 to 8 degrees at wreck depth due to thermocline layering. A drysuit is strongly recommended. Currents are generally mild but can pick up during wind events. The sandy bottom means silt disturbance is less of an issue than at mud-bottom wreck sites, but careful buoyancy control is still important near the wrecks.