St. Andrew Aquarium

Experience level: advanced divers 
Depth: 3 - 80 m
Boat ride to location: 35 minutes
Visibility: excellent
Currents: none

St. Andrew (Sveti Andrija) is one of the islands in the Dubrovnik archipelago that belongs to the Elaphite group and is located near the popular island of Lopud. This small island still has a functioning lighthouse that has been warning sailors of danger since 1847. The sea of St. Andrew is characterized by great depths and steep underwater walls. Some of them are densely overgrown with underwater vegetation, while others, in the shade, are completely bare. Different types of fish are found along the walls. 
The dive on the St. Andrew wall starts on the protected side of the island at a depth of three meters and very quickly becomes much deeper as it reaches a depth of 80 meters. 
This diving location has gained a reputation among divers as a unique location with an almost calm sea and a wonderful seabed. Descending through the silence, at a depth of about 12 meters, we come across a cave inhabited by pink algae and sea snails. A little further, at 35 meters, there are the second and third caves. A further descent through the motley of colors will bring you encounters with coral fish, red scorpionfish flocks of cardinalfish, Mediterranean chromis, Mediterranean sand smelt, and bogue, you will be amazed by the amount of marine life. The dive continues down the underwater wall up to one of today’s rarest sights - red coral. Unfortunately, red coral is becoming increasingly difficult to see, but divers can still spot it hidden in the shadows of large rocks or holes in the underwater wall. 

Two similar stories are connected with this small island, which happened three hundred years apart. The first story takes us back to the time when there was a Dominican monastery on Saint Andrew. A girl from Lopud fell in love with a young monk who served in that monastery. In the summer, the girl often swam to St. Andrew’s at night to meet her beloved. When the girl’s family discovered the secret of the two young people, to prevent family shame, they prepared a poisonous drink for her.
Another story dates back to the period after the lighthouse was built on the island. At the end of the nineteenth century, a young fisherman from the island of Lopud fell in love with the beautiful daughter of a lighthouse keeper. At that time, the profession of a lighthouse keeper was especially valued in the civil service, so the girl’s father and brothers thought that the poor young man was not a good husband. The love of the two young people was stronger than prohibitions, so the brave young man often swam at night from Lopud, two nautical miles away, to St. Andrew’s. Lovers spent long nights hidden in a dense pine forest.