Bahiret el Bibane

These two karstic peninsulas of ca 12 km length each[5] are made of fossilized limestone slabs and nine small islets are located in the opening in between them.

[7] Bahiret el bibane is under the influence of the tide: Tidal sites are extremely rare in the Mediterranean and very important for birds, fish and shellfish.

In areas and during the drier season when a chloride or sulphate cust forms on a dry-looking ground, the Salicornias give way to Halocnemum strobilaceum.

The deeper center of the sebkha areas is generally devoid of vegetation except during the drier season when it is fleetingly dominated by Halopeplis amplexicaulis.

[10] The importance of photosynthetic activity of marine Magnoliophyte beds is demonstrated by the fact that dissolved oxygen values are higher during the day that those measured at night.

For some types of birds, the numbers wintering around Bahiret el Bibane exceed 1% of their world population, an important criteria in the Ramsar convention for how critical a site is to a species.

The Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax describes salted fish production centers (Greek:Tarikheiae) between the Libyan town of Sabratha (the antique Abrotonon) and the "Island of shoals" (today's Djerba).

Strabo (XVII, 16) also mentions observatories (which he calls thynnoscopia) set-up to watch for fish migrations, and these could correspond to the Roman era towers remains found on the peninsulas (Solb el-Gharbi and Solb ech-Charki)[6] The extent of archeological remains from Antiquity, connected to fishing activities, testifies to a denser human presence around the lagoon than today: Many antique cisterns of large size were discovered in Henchir Bou Gueurnine on the southern shore of the lagoon, facing the opening to the sea.

But the long row of blocks or stone slabs arranged in double lines on the inside of the shallow lagoon turned out to be eroded remains of a series of vats belonging to a factory producing salted fish or garum, similar to other found in Nabeul, Salakta and the Kerkennah islands in Tunisia or in Morocco and Spain.

[6] The Punic, then Roman large scale semi-industrial fish-salting and garum production establishments seemed to be abandoned with the collapse of trade and the Roman empire and not much is known about the potential changes in fishing methods and fisheries until the 1st available written record of 1896, except the following: Areas of the seabed close to the lagoon were owned by locals and could be sold or rented like any piece of dry-land property,[6] in a situation similar to what exists to this day on the Kerkenah Islands.

On these shallow areas, complex fish-traps called Cherfia-s or Zroub-s were built by sticking vertically palm branches in the marine sediment in such a way that it would never be overtaken by the waters even of the strongest tide.