3 November 2009
We had a very enlightening afternoon with the Bupati (Mayor) of Wakatobi, Pak Hugua. He was very aware of the Coral Triangle and the efforts of WWF, TNC & CI to help in the conservation efforts of this all important region. His special interest of course lies in Wakatobi. He said very firmly that Wakatobi is the Center of the Center of the Coral Triangle.
This made us smile because we heard this many times before in the Philippines when our good friend Romy Trono of CI insisted, because of scientific findings, that Verde Island is the Center of the Center of the Coral Triangle. Upon hearing this, the Bupati said smiling back “No. The Coral Triangle looks like a sitting person. The Philippines is the head, Malaysia has the shoulder and the Solomon Islands, the toe.”
We had to check out the Bupati’s theory and find out which body part the others belong to. So just for fun, like good investigators that we are, we made this diagram to figure out who is where in the Coral Triangle.