Ice Diving
The White Sea
Ice diving courses

The White Sea

The White Sea, one of the most beautiful seas in the north of Russia, with virgin nature and rich, original fauna, belongs to the basin of the Arctic Ocean. Every winter, Greenland seals make their rookeries in the northern part of this inland Russian sea, where calves are born. The uninhabited islands of the White Sea teem with bird colonies, where sea birds hatch eggs and grow their nestlings in summertime. The sea is also home to the white whales.


Northern lights
Part of the sea is located above the Northern Polar Circle, where from autumn till early April you can watch the northern lights, or Aurora Borealis - the night sky being split by blue, green and reddish flashes.

Landscape
The deserted coast of the White Sea and its numerous uninhabited islands are very picturesque, their steep rocky shores alternating with flat strips covered with taiga and mixed forests.

Sea life
The underwater world of the White Sea is rich in magnificent landscapes and wonderful sea life. Divers will see soft corals, actinia, sponges, sea-stars, crabs, hermit-crabs, sea-urchins, and shrimps. In wintertime you can watch fish from a very close distance - lancet-fish, tomcod, flounder, and pinogor. Under the ice, when visibility is 30-40 meters, you can enjoy breathtaking views of underwater rocks smoothly or abruptly disappearing in the dark depths, of kelps gently swaying in the bottom. Many-meter ice masses towering on the surface look like shadowy castles from under the sea.

Climate
The climate of the White Sea is very severe. During the long winter the temperature may fall to minus 40, and the ice may be 1.5 meters thick. Look at the table below showing the air and water temperatures by seasons.

Historical places.
Although man came to these lands many thousand years ago, they are still far from being developed. The first traces of human life on the White Sea islands date back to the II and I millenniums B.C. - stone labyrinths, dolmens, stone barrows, sites of ancient tribes located on the Solovki Archipelago. Here you will also see Russian historical monuments, among them the famous Solovki Monastery built by Orthodox monks in the 15th century and well preserved till now. The monastery is connected with a tragic page of the Russian history: after the October revolution the territory of the monastery was turned into a prisoner camp, where many Russian people were martyrized. Now the numerous churches are being restored, and the islands offer many interesting excursions. The White Sea is home to the ancient Russian port of Arkhangelsk. Founded in the 16th century, the city is rightly called "the Gate to the Arctic". It was here that the Russian northern fleet was born and the first Arctic expeditions set off on their dangerous journeys.