1The beginnings of coral exploitation date to Classical Antiquity, where it was incorporated into Mediterranean commercial circuits in Asia for export to India and China. Initially, coral was intensively exploited in the northern parts of the Western Mediterranean. However, over time, these areas lost their precedence over southern regions of the Mediterranean and became secondary centres of production. Over the course of centuries, El Kala (the eastern most coastal region of present day Algeria) acquired the reputation for being the most fertile Mediterranean region for coral and became subject to an intensive coral rush from several different kingdoms and empires1. These, locked into different conflicts with each other, had also been engaged in changing relationships with the Ottoman Empire and its vassals in Barbary2. Starting from the fifteenth century onwards, eastern Algeria was at the centre of disputes among different European powers (French, Spanish, Italian and Briti