Mali Losinj, located on the northern Adriatic island of Losinj, is the birthplace of spearfishing because the first world spearfishing championship was held there in 1957, the head of the local tourism board, Dalibor Cvitkovic, has said.
In 2010, Losinj also hosted the World Spearfishing Championship.
Competing in this year's event will be teams from Croatia, Italy, Greece, Finland, San Marino, Slovenia, Turkey, Ukraine, Algeria, South Africa, Denmark, Spain, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Russia, Tunisia, Egypt and Norway.