The waters surrounding the island have been declared Mediterranean Marine Reserve, by virtue of the excellent quality of its waters and the biodiversity of its fauna and flora, and because it is a clear example of poorly altered Mediterranean marine communities.
Its coasts sheltered in the past a refuge of Berber pirates. In the eighteenth century, Charles III ordered to fortify it and build in it a village in which to accommodate several families of fishermen from Genoa who were held captive in the Tunisian city of Tabarka. The walls that surround its urban nucleus have been declared as being a Historical Artistic Set and Well of Cultural Interest.