Wayag Islands in the Raja Ampat Islands, Indonesia

The Wayags are part of the larger Raja Ampat Islands off the coast of Indonesia’s West Papua Province. These small, uninhabited islands are popular with divers and snorkellers eager to explore the vast and diverse reef system surrounding them. 

The Wayags are within the Coral Triangle, which covers only 1.6 percent of Earth’s oceanic regions, but contains 76 percent of every known coral species on the planet. Some scientists say the diversity of the ecosystem in the triangle is comparable to that of the Amazon rainforest. The region is even sometimes referred to as 'The Amazon of the seas.' Map It

Raja Ampat Islands

Located off the northwest tip of Bird's Head Peninsula on the island of New Guinea, in Indonesia's West Papua province, Raja Ampat, or the Four Kings, is an archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding the four main islands of Misool, Salawati, Batanta, and Waigeo, and the smaller island of Kofiau. The Raja Ampat archipelago straddles the Equator and forms part of Coral Triangle which contains the richest marine biodiversity on earth.

The Coral Triangle is a roughly triangular area of the tropical marine waters of Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste that contain at least 500 species of reef-building corals in each ecoregion. This region encompasses portions of two biogeographic regions: the Indonesian-Philippines Region, and the Far Southwestern Pacific Region. 

The Coral Triangle is recognized as the global centre of marine biodiversity and a global priority for conservation. It is also called the "Amazon of the seas" and covers 5.7 million square kilometres of ocean waters. Its biological resources sustain the lives of over 120 million people. According to the Coral Triangle Knowledge Network, about $3 billion in fisheries exports and another $3 billion in coastal tourism revenues are derived as annual foreign exchange income in the region.