In less than two weeks, the Philippine reef will be center stage in San Francisco. The Philippine Coral Reef Exhibit, a permanent exhibit in the brand new home of the world renowned California Academy of Sciences at the heart of Golden Gate Park, will be opened to the public for the first time, featuring a 212,000-gallon, 25-foot deep aquarium, its waters teeming with marine life never before seen in an aquarium setting.

On exhibit in the new Academy will be a variety of soft and hard corals, sharks, rays, over 2,000 colorful reef fish and mangrove, replicating as closely as possible the extraordinary gathering of marine life found only in the richest marine community in the world in the Philippines? Verde Island Passage some 9,000 miles away.

Spearheading the grassroots activities to get the word out on this world-class venue is Pusod (Navel), an environmental entity whose work and mission in the US and the Philippines is to protect Philippine ecosystems and show the world their significance. It?s headed by its founder Malou Babilonia and her mother, Pusod trustee Marilou Salcedo, and REEF (Reaching out through Environmental Education to Filipinos), a dedicated group of Filipino Americans living in the Bay Area.

Together they have taken on the task of increasing awareness and spreading knowledge of this growing, living, thriving reef ?in the center of the center of the center? of the richest marine bio-diversity place in the world. That?s not a typo. The center of the world?s marine bio-diversity is the IMPA region ?Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. At the center of these countries is the Philippines. And at the center of the Philippines is Verde Island Passage.

At the cozy, well-appointed home of Marilou Salcedo in Alameda ? an island city in the East Bay of San Francisco, built along a canal reminiscent of old Manila?s canals ? I interviewed Dr. Meg Burke, Director of Education at the Academy for the past ten years, and senior curator Dr. Terrence Gosliner, expert marine biologist and author of several books.

One gave an overview; the other, empirical testimony from experience. Dr. Gosliner explained the choice of the Philippine Reef from among the better-known reefs in the world. In his 16 years of research on reefs in dozens of places in the Tropical, Pacific and Indian Oceans since 1992, his conclusion was unwaveringly clear: The Philippine Reef, particularly in the very deep waters of the busy Verde Island Passage has the biggest, richest marine biodiversity in the world, just a hundred or so miles southwest of Manila and a banca ride from the shores of Batangas, Mindoro Oriental and Occidental, Romblon and Marinduque.

All contributing to this richness are unusually strong equatorial currents from several channels that sweep through Verde Island Passage, carrying larvae from the ends of the world, combined with sea temperatures, depths of up to 3,000 feet and other factors. Its biodiversity is unsurpassed and has been called the "marine counterpart of the Amazon River basin."

Exhibiting a Live Coral Colony

What particular aspect of the permanent exhibit does Dr. Gosliner like most? ?The live coral. Although the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago has a big coral tank with many sharks, it has less live coral,? he replied, glint in his eye. Dr. Gosliner and his team have figured out technologies to grow as much live coral as they want. All other corals in the aquarium have been harvested sustainably from other aquaria, or confiscated from fish and wildlife illegally brought into the US. ?All these done without picking all the live things off of a native coral reef. We could learn the skills of doing that without damaging coral reef.?

He adds, ?It takes 30, 40 years for a reef to mature. This reef we put together will only get better as new species are added, and as corals continue to grow they re-produce. It will be stunningly beautiful and every time people come back it would be different.?

The Making of the Exhibit

Dr. Meg Burke was involved in the planning of the aquarium from the get go, working closely with Dr. Gosliner, curator Bart Shepperd, and designers in creating the Philippine Coral Reef Exhibit. Making sure that everything was scientifically correct, they focused on what the exhibit would look like and what stories it would tell.

Corals are animals but grow like plants, Dr. Burke explained: ?If you break off a fragment of coral and marine glue it to a rock, it will grow like a plant. If you give it the right light and water conditions, it will just keep on reproducing.? Light support will get all the water quality and temperature needed to sustain the corals and different fish species in the aquarium.

All the corals and fish thriving in the aquarium were sustainably harvested from many sources, the likes of museums all over the country and certified pet stores that passed the Marine Aquarium Council?s guidelines for collecting fish sustainably.

This exhibit is therefore as close a representation of what you would see if you went to the Philippines, said Dr. Burke. ?Species are not from the Caribbean, not from Indian Ocean but the Philippine ocean. The focus on Philippine Coral reef allowed us to connect with Filipino Americans in Bay Area.? After a few diving visits to the Philippines, she now considers herself a personal friend as well as an honorary Filipina after she brought home a balikbayan box.

The Filipino American community is excited and proud to see the reef exhibit come to fruition. It?s going to help people understand the diversity of the coral reefs in the Philippines and how important it is to protect them. ?It allows us to tell a real good story about conservation. The bad news is that dynamite and cyanide are being used to catch fish, and mangrove trees are cut for lumber. The good news is that Anilao and Balayan Bay people have taken initiative to protect their reefs. When you go diving (you see that), the fish coral have come back,? said Dr. Burke.

?We hear about bad news?global climate change, global warming, pollution. If you keep on bombarding bad news, people will give up hope. But here it is documented that if we all make the effort, we can turn it around and help restore these reefs,? she continued.

?It?s going to be one of the most popular exhibits because its biggest impact has a compelling story to tell. Human acts half a world away have a ripple effect on all of the world?s oceans.?

?One of the things to be done in the Bay Area,? says Dr. Gosliner, ?is to reduce our carbon footprint and make sure that we?re adding very little carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Controlling vehicle use, efficient vehicles, using energy wisely, alternative energy ? solar and wind ? whatever we do here will have a tremendous long term effect on reefs half a world away. Even if we?re talking about California and coastal tides, Philippine Reef, or rain forest, everything that we do in our lives is interconnected to the rest of the planet.

?We cannot ignore things half the world away because we are creating the consequences which are changing those environments. We have to work in harmony?in terms of more co-operation, more education, providing resources for local communities in developing nations. To develop the skills and educational materials to make sure that they?re doing everything they can and we are doing everything we can to preserve the planet and all the life that is special to life on earth.?

A recent finding by scientists is that increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes the ocean acidic. Since coral skeletons are made of lime calcium, they are dissolving faster than coral can grow. This can lead to potential devastation of reefs around the world.

A new view of coral reefs

Reefs host extremely diverse marine ecosystems, being home to over 4,000 species of fish, mollusks, crustaceans and many other animals. Unfortunately, aside from the growing numbers of scuba divers, the world has eyed corals as purely decorative items ? from aquatic to terra firma decor, or as fashion accessories.

?People have to be educated on how to protect the reef,? says Dr. Burke. Besides being an abundant source of fish and octopus, ?reefs are extremely important in providing protection from typhoons for coastal communities. Having a well developed coral reef is a good insurance policy,? added Dr. Gosliner.

We cannot control a tsunami triggered by an underwater earthquake but trawling, boat anchors, unscrupulous scuba divers, and most especially dynamite fishing and cyanide all destroy coral reefs. These practices have stopped in the Batangas area, but they are unfortunately still done in other places in the Philippines.

But, says Dr. Gosliner who has been diving in the Philippines for 16 years, ?It?s becoming rarer as people learn more and learn to take care of the reef and realize that their continued livelihood and ability to feed themselves and their families depend on the survival of these reefs; that there has to be a better organized way of fishing where certain areas are set aside and allowed to be replenished.

?Just like growing crops, one needs to rotate the crops so as not to deplete the nutrients from the soil ? same is true for the ocean. We need to harvest from different areas selectively and in an organized manner to be able to effectively maintain the fisheries for future generations as well as for the present generation.?

Helping Mother Earth Begins at Home

At the Pusod offices, they use only regular porcelain or glass cups, all reusable and recyclable. ?Trying to educate the community that helping mother earth starts from the home,? said Marilou Salcedo. ? Stop using Styrofoam because it?s not biodegradable.?

In the Philippines, they work hand in hand with farming communities and fishing villages, educating them about the importance of sustainable practices to insure abundant harvests.

Going further, Malou Babilonia said they also speak about protecting the land and the reefs, working with community leaders and the government. She described how they brought scientists to a forum for college students in Batangas. It was a holiday yet hundreds of students came. And they were awed at learning that just a banca ride away lay a great treasure. They wanted to be marine biologists and study Philippine waters.

For years Babilonia and Salcedo have managed and nurtured Pusod in obscurity in the Southern Tagalog region. Now they are working in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, which has the resources. They say the partnership ?has been great? because it takes their work to a new playing field: ?Now the whole world has the opportunity to see the pride of the Philippines and how it affects the entire globe. Pusod will continue its collaboration with the Academy forever and forever. A match made in heaven.?

For its part, the Bay Area community has stepped up to the plate in disseminating the news, showing great pride in the reef. Voltaire Gungab, the tireless marketing volunteer of REEF, says Filipinos are now ?united in our ocean, not the region one came from.?

?A grant from the National Science Foundation helped build the exhibit and the outreach to the Filipino community, helped to make the plan a success,? said Dr. Burke.

Leave Corals and Shells on the Seashore

Dr. Terry Gosliner admonishes tourists and beachcombers who scour the seashore for shells and colorful coral skeletons to take home as souvenirs: ?Make sure it does not have any live coral or hermit crab beneath the shell. Some coral skeletons are illegal to export because it cannot be determined whether they were live when collected or picked off from the beach. Just leave it be and leave alone. Let it recycle and be part of a natural reef cycle. Coral skeleton broken down into calcium returns to water and provides the chemical for the next generation of corals.

To Filipinos, Dr. Gosliner says, ?Be proud of your reefs. You have one of the greatest treasures on earth; you either come from or live in a part of the world that is one of the most spectacular and special places on the planet. Treasure it and protect it. Learn more about it and see it, savor it and enjoy it.?