An Interesting Offer for Tourists in Karstic Waters

River Gacka - Fly Fishing

Karstic waters is located in Kostelka source in Ličko Lešće, and is the centre in Croatia for ingenious variety of crawfish and fish. The main aim behind forming this centre was to promote scientific research and farming of ingenious species farming. After a year of it being formed, tourists found out about the spot and since then it became a popular tourist attraction. Recently an agreement has been signed between the United Nations Development Program and the representatives from the Otocac. As per this agreement these two bodies together will finance the up gradation of the centre. By providing the finance to the centre the authorities want that it gets satisfactory representation so that the story of the fish in the Karstic waters can be told to the visitors and the tourists in a very striking way. The main aim of the concerned authorities is to make this project the stepping stone in creating the awareness of preserving the fishes and the waters so that later on in the future a Water Centre can be constructed in the vacant area of the hydroelectric power plant in Svica. With this centre the authorities feel that a message can be given to the masses that tourism and protection of the species can be done together and is this way one can live from the protection and also protect the endangered species.
The European Union funded the construction of The Croatian Center for the indigenous species of fish and crawfish in karstic waters. This was one of the initial projects in the PHARE 2005 Programme and last year in the month of November it opened formally. The main founders of the centre were the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, town of Otocac, Gacka d.o.o and the Ruđer Bošković Institute.
Recently this beauty was visited by two journalists from America named, John Needden and Ashley Colburn who recorded original scenes for two TV shows, ‘Wow Croatia’ and ‘Vicarious Escapes’. Another project called “Every Drop Matters – River Gacka” is being supported by the UNDP. In this project a map called “The Path of Water and Karst – Discover Gacka and Velebit on a Bike” was published which had two new cycling maps. The map is so called because it has the map of the cycling trails which go through River Gacka and the bottom of Velebit Mountain. This map is redesigned and is of the 43 kilometre long Barkan trails.