Hutovo Blato

Hutovo Blato is situated in the south Herzegovina, in a primarily karst ambiance, on the left side of river Neretva, featuring a unique sub Mediterranean swamp in Europe. Since the ancient times, this place is known as the green oasis, with an abundance of water that provides inhabitation conditions for a large number of plants and animals. The swamp is interesting and important also from ornithological, ichthyologic, scientific, environmental and tourist point of view.

Hutovo Blato is considered to be one of the largest bird winter ports in Europe. The area covers the territories of Čapljina and Stolac and incorporates terrain consisting of swamps, plains and hills, with altitude ranging between 1 and 432 meters above sea level.
This area is located around fifteen kilometers from the Adriatic Sea and is under a strong influence of the Mediterranean climate. Because of exceptional importance and beauty, Hutovo Blato was inaugurated as the Nature Park in 1995. Flowing into valleys and depressions, lost rivers and surface water currents form a large number of lakes, gorges, and river Krupa and ensure a high level of underground water. Such a high level of underground water causes the appearance of permanent and periodic wells and springs.
Lakes of Hutovo Blato represent true crypto depressions, because bottoms of some of them are below sea level (Jelim 18 m). 

 The largest lakes of Hutovo Blato are: Deransko, Jelim, Drijen, Orah, Škrka and Svitava. 
Svitavsko lake is an artificial water accumulation, originating from construction of the Čapljina hydroelectric power station. All lakes in Hutovo Blato are interconnected with numerous canals and gorges. 
River Krupa is the main water current of Hutovo Blato, which leads the waters from Gornje Blato and Svitavsko lake into river Neretva. Krupa does not have an actual spring, but is actually an arm of Deransko lake. The length of Krupa is 9 km with an average depth of 5 meters. This is a unique river in Europe, because the river flows both ways. It flows ‘normally’ from the ‘spring’ to the mouth and from the mouth to the ‘spring’. This happens when, due to high water level and large quantity of water, river Neretva pushes out the Krupa river.