Discovering the Coral Triangle
Aldo Leopold Audubon Society to host program
For the Gazette
The Coral Triangle is one of three mega ecological complexes on earth, along with the Amazon Rainforest and the Congo Basin.
The Coral Triangle is a six million square kilometer area in the Western Pacific including the countries of the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
It is known as the most diverse marine ecosystem in the world, containing 30 percent of all coral reefs, 75 percent of all coral species, and 37 percent of the world’s reef fish species.
The Aldo Leopold Audubon Society (ALAS)’s first program of the new year will feature Karen Dostal, who had the opportunity to travel to the Coral Triangle in 2017, where she spent a week scuba diving along the Dampier Straits in the Raja Ampat Islands.
In this travelogue, Karen will discuss the conservation initiatives to protect the Coral Triangle Region, provide information on how scuba equipment works, and illustrate the diversity of marine life in the Coral Triangle.
Dostal earned her bachelor of science in education and her masters in environmental education from UWSP. She has been the education chair of the Aldo Leopold Audubon Society board since 1999. As director of the Stevens Point School District’s Boston School Forest, she has provided local students with education on the environment, ecology, and nature.
The online travelogue will be held Jan. 20, at 7 p.m.; registration is available at or https://bit.ly/3getTb0.