Diving in Greece

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Good news!
Loved diving in Greece back in 2018.
The plan is to go back at some point.
 
Unfortunately I don't think that it is that simple. To be honest I haven't got the time and the skills needed to read and fully understand the new law. I went fast through it and I see totally different things than what it is said in that web site mentioned in the OP.

For example it is mentioned in Article 2 Paragraph 2 of the new law:
Recreational diving is prohibited: a) in areas of marine archeological sites determined by the competent services of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, in accordance with the provisions of articles 12 and 15 of Law 3028/2002 (A '153)

I think that this law introduces the concept of accessible (to public) marine archeological park something that was not possible until now. The law describes the procedure to designate an area as such and then diving there is allowed but only with registered dive ops (following a guide) as mentioned in Article 6 paragraph 5 (mostly my translation):
In designated as accessible marine archeological parks it is allowed only : a) guided snorkeling and guided diving accompanied by legally licensed recreational diving guides, b)glass bottom boats to observe the seabed, as well as c) the archeological or other scientific observations carried out under the terms of p.d. 67/1981(A '23) and the other relevant provisions, during which the park becomes unavailable for other visitors.

I will go through the law once I get some time and I will report back here.
Until then whoever is interested might have a look here (google translated version of the law):

Μετάφραση Google

Good luck
 
The more I read the clearer it becomes that the web site is simply wrong.
Article 7 Paragraph 1: 1. It is allowed to dive (free or scuba diving) to ship and aircraft wrecks, older than fifty (50) years, only guided by legal/registered dive ops. It is also permitted to do guided snorkeling and glass bottom ship or by other means observation of the seabed, as well as private snorkeling.
That's again mostly my translation as automatic/google translation is just not good enough.

I think that until recently wrecks were kind of grey area for diving. Anything older than 50 years was consider "archeological site" and hence officially it was not allowed to dive there, but in practice well known or unknown wrecks were dived quite frequently - go figure :)
With the new law it seems that diving them is now allowed by only through local dive ops.

Keep in mind that a lot of these wrecks are ancient and mostly not explored hence they might still have real "treasures" in them (see for example Antikythera wreck - Wikipedia which is only partially excavated as yet) hence not being able to freely dive them sounds a quite good idea.

Things are a bit different for the numerous wrecks from the 1st and 2nd world wars
 
Sorry, 2 weeks have passed and I haven't managed to find time for this. And to be honest I don't think I will find the time needed any time soon. To sum it up things are like I said above.

Basically before the said law diving was (in theory at least) not allowed to any wrecks older than 50 years.
With this new law, it is also not allowed (in theory) to dive wrecks older than 50 years BUT such areas can get approval (again in theory - I don't know how this thing will work in practice) from our archeologists, our coast guards etc to become "accessible". Once this is done visiting such sites will be allowed but only guided by local dive ops.

It is an improvement compared to the previous status, but given that our services (archeology, coast guard etc) are notoriously slow (I would say slower that nudibranchs) and reluctant to change, I guess in practice very few (if any) such parks will open. I hope I will be proven wrong :)

This law also permits the creation of diving parks (for example modern "artificial" wrecks). This might be easier to implement and hence we might see few of these.

All the best
 
Sorry, 2 weeks have passed and I haven't managed to find time for this. And to be honest I don't think I will find the time needed any time soon. To sum it up things are like I said above.

Basically before the said law diving was (in theory at least) not allowed to any wrecks older than 50 years.
With this new law, it is also not allowed (in theory) to dive wrecks older than 50 years BUT such areas can get approval (again in theory - I don't know how this thing will work in practice) from our archeologists, our coast guards etc to become "accessible". Once this is done visiting such sites will be allowed but only guided by local dive ops.

It is an improvement compared to the previous status, but given that our services (archeology, coast guard etc) are notoriously slow (I would say slower that nudibranchs) and reluctant to change, I guess in practice very few (if any) such parks will open. I hope I will be proven wrong :)

This law also permits the creation of diving parks (for example modern "artificial" wrecks). This might be easier to implement and hence we might see few of these.

All the best

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted.
 
"This latest loosening of restrictions follows the passing of a 2019 bill in Parliament easing scuba diving laws, and is part of larger group of incentives to encourage the return of international tourists to Greece following the worldwide coronavirus lockdown."

I don't see myself returning to Greece ever again. My entire family is Greek and I am a second-generation American. We still have a lot of family in Greece. I was arrested and detained in Greece for taking scenic photos through the airplane window during our approach to the island of Santorini. I tried to dive when I toured Greece, but the only dive shop that I ever found open was in Pilos. The dive in the bay was terrible.

My 3-week tour of the country was certainly not an experience that I ever want to try again.
 

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