Sea on Kvarner Beaches Remains Excellent: 97.5% of Samples Receive Top Grade
The sixth cycle of sea quality testing in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County has confirmed exceptional cleanliness, with 23 beaches awarded the Blue Flag this year.
The sixth cycle of sea quality testing in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County has confirmed exceptional cleanliness, with 23 beaches awarded the Blue Flag this year.
According to data published on August 8, 2026, the sixth round of sea cleanliness measurements on beaches in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County has confirmed that the quality remains exceptionally good. The testing, conducted by the Teaching Institute of Public Health of PGŽ, covered 275 locations, with excellent quality recorded at 268 samples, accounting for 97.5 percent.
Good sea quality was found at seven samples, or 2.6 percent, while there were no locations with satisfactory or unsatisfactory ratings during this cycle. Among the locations with good quality are Crikvenica, Kačjak East, Rijeka, Kantrida near the "3. maj" Recreation Center, several points on Rab (Uvala Padova 1, 2, 3, and Gonar, South), and the location in front of the Tiha camp in Šilo on the island of Krk.
This summer season, the City of Rijeka introduced an additional program of daily preventive sea quality monitoring at Kantrida beach. These are rapid tests that serve as an early warning system and provide results within minutes. Yesterday's testing, conducted on August 7, 2026, showed that Kantrida beach (near the football field) is safe for swimming, with low risk and no signs of elevated microbiological load.
This initiative goes beyond mandatory legal controls and represents additional protection for bathers, as it enables faster detection of potential health hazards and better prevention.
This year's novelty includes two new locations added to the testing, near the Ambassador and Istra hotels in Opatija. During the summer season, a total of ten testing cycles are conducted in the county, every two weeks, from mid-May to the end of September.
An additional reason for satisfaction is the fact that 23 beaches were awarded the Blue Flag this year, which is eight more than last season. This confirms the continuous growth in the quality of coastal areas.
National monitoring of sea quality on beaches has been conducted since 1989, and over three and a half decades, the main goal has remained unchanged, protecting human health and water resources primarily from microbiological pollution. Information is also collected at the European level, and among approximately thirty countries, Croatia has long been among the top five in sea cleanliness, making it an important factor in its tourism offering.
