Layard in Atchin and his contemporary Bronisław Malinowski in the Trobriand Islands of New Guinea were the first modern anthropologists to use what is today called participant observation methods in ethnographic research.
On the northeastern side of the island there is a group of islands called Small Islands, amongst them (from N to S) Vao, Atchin, Wala (island), Rano (island), Norsup, Uripiv and Uri (island).