Ile de Rachgoun Ramsar Site (66 ha; 35°19'N 01°28'W). The island of Rachgoun is a Mediterranean volcanic island 4 km off the Algerian coast and with a semi-arid climate. It is unique in Algeria for supporting the Critically Endangered Mediterranean Monk Seal Monachus monachus. The seas surrounding the island are used by endangered whale species: Sperm Whale Physeter macrocephalus, Fin Whale Balaenoptera physalus and the most widely distributed of the beaked whales, Cuvier's Beaked Whale Ziphius cavirostris. Loggerhead Caretta caretta and Leatherback Dermochelys coriacea Turtles, respectively Endangered and Critically Endangered, also use the island. The island is an important source of food, spawning ground and nursery for fishes, crustaceans and molluscs, and isis used by a variety of breeding seabirds, including Audouin's Gull Larus audouinii and Cory's Shearwater Calonectris diomedea, and other migratory waterbirds. The fragile ecosystem of the island and its vulnerability to multiple human interventions has led to degradations that continue to alter the ecology of the site. The Island of Rachgoun is under the management of the Institut des sciences de la mer et de l'aménagement du littoral (ISMAL)'.