Tabarca in terms of marine ecology. Therefore, waters around Tabarca were declared a Marine reserve in 1986, the first of its kind in Spain. This status was mainly granted due to its submarine posidonia prairie, which is the largest in the Spanish Mediterranean and has an extraordinary ecological value in terms of marine fauna and flora. In order to both enhance the marine biodiversity and protect it from fishing, an artificial reef was laid near the island by the Marine Reserve authorities. Tabarca Tabarca (, ) also known in Valencian as "Nova Tabarca" and "Illa Plana", and in Spanish as "Nueva
Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera of a small number of Spanish military personnel. Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera is located 119 km southeast of Ceuta. It was a natural island in the Alboran Sea until 1934, when a huge thunderstorm washed large quantities of sand in the short channel between the island and the African continent, turning it into a tombolo. Ever since, it has been a peninsula, currently connected to the Moroccan coast by an 85 m long sandy isthmus, the world's shortest single land border segment. With a length of 400 meters northwest-southeast and a width of up to 100 meters, it