Diving Abersee

Site Overview

Abersee is a alpine lake dive site in Upper Austria – Salzkammergut, Austria, set among the country’s varied freshwater landscapes. Abersee is a very small, clear lake near St. Wolfgang, often used by local centres for quick training and familiarisation dives. Its compact size and easy shore entries make it a low-pressure place to build skills close to the Wolfgangsee. Weed beds and the clean bottom hold perch, roach and the occasional pike in the shallows. It is warmer and more sheltered than the big lakes, so summer dives are comfortable in a wetsuit. The clarity is good for a lake of its size, rewarding slow macro and buoyancy work. It is the quiet, local-training counterpart to the showpiece Wolfgangsee nearby. Conditions are typical of Austrian inland water: visibility generally runs from 6 to 16 metres, the current is low and the water temperature ranges between 4 and 20 degrees Celsius depending on season and depth. The marine life is freshwater and centred on european perch, roach, northern pike, with the full community described below for those planning a dive. Because of its beginner rating and the need for Open Water certification, Abersee is best approached with the right thermal protection and, where relevant, altitude or overhead training. It is a representative example of why Austrian lake diving, with its cold clarity, submerged forests and wrecks, attracts divers who want something different from tropical reefs.