In this study we tested the applicability of a method, originally developed for terrestrial plant leaves, to retrieve chlorophyll-a concentrations from reflectance spectra of turbid productive waters. We tuned the conceptual model according to the optical characteristics of the aquatic medium, and accurately predicted chlorophyll-a concentrations in water bodies over a wide range of optical conditions. Our results provide evidence that this technique may be considered as a general solution, independent of the type of medium, for assessing chlorophyll concentration in optically deep media using remotely sensed data.