Walung was the smallest of the original five

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

of the state of

Kosrae Kosrae ( ), formerly known as Kusaie or Strong's Island, is an island in the Federated States of Micronesia. The State of Kosrae is one of the four states of the Federated States of Micronesia, and includes the main island of Kosrae and a few near ...

Federated States of Micronesia The Federated States of Micronesia (; abbreviated FSM) is an island country in Oceania. It consists of four states from west to east, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosraethat are spread across the western Pacific. Together, the states comprise a ...

. Since the 1980s, it has been part of the municipality of

Tafunsak Tafunsak (formerly transliterated as Tahfuhnsahk) is the largest settlement on the island of Kosrae in the Federated States of Micronesia. Its population was 2,457 at the 2000 census. This includes Walung, which had been incorporated into the mun ...

Geography

Walung is located at the Southwest point of the island, northwest of Utwa and southwest of

village. Most of its western edge is

coast The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

line. Walung does not reach far towards the center of Kosrae. The

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

of Walung was Walung Village. With a population of only 151 at the census of 1980 (out of 5,491 for the state of Kosrae), Walung was by far the smallest of the five municipalities.

Utwe Utwe (or Utwa) is the second-largest municipality in the Micronesian state of Kosrae, the largest being Tafunsak. Geography Utwe occupies the very South of the island, but has no coast on its East border. In 1994 the total population of Utwe w ...

, the second smallest, had a population of 912. The area of the municipality was about 19.5 km².

Utwa-Walung Marine Park

Walung and Utwa are home to the Utwa-Walung Marine Park, a conservation area established by Madison Nena, a local ecologist who has won several awards, including the

Seacology Seacology is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in Berkeley, California, that works to preserve island ecosystems and cultures around the world. Founded in 1991, it began with the work of ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox, ...

Prize in 1999. In the late 1990s, Madison Nena successfully led a campaign to prevent property developers from building a tourist complex without adequate sewage facilities, and in its place he founded an eco-tourism initiative at Kosrae Village Resort. He has also worked with island elders to revitalize historic methods of Kosraean house construction. The park features excellent examples of healthy hard

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

, as well as some of Micronesia's most pristine

forests A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

and extensive

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

ecosystems. The park's main office is close to the

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

site of the infamous pirate trader

Bully Hayes William Henry "Bully" Hayes (1827 or 1829 – 31 March 1877) was a notorious American ship's captain who engaged in blackbirding in the 1860s and 1870s.James A. Michener & A. Grove Day, ''Bully Hayes, South Sea Buccaneer'', in ''Rascals in Parad ...

, and it is rumored that Hayes buried some treasure somewhere in the forest.

Education

Kosrae State Department of Education Kosrae State Department of Education (KDOE) is an agency of Kosrae State, Federated States of Micronesia that operates public schools. It is headquartered in Tofol.

operates Walung Elementary School. High school students attend

Kosrae High School Kosrae High School (KHS) is a secondary school in Tofol, Lelu municipality, Kosrae State, Federated States of Micronesia. It is a part of the Kosrae State Department of Education and is the island's sole high school.Tofol Tofol village in Lelu Town municipality is the capital of the state of Kosrae in Micronesia, according to the provisions of the Kosrae State Code, Title 2, Chap. 2. It is the most easterly point of Micronesia. Location Tofol is in Lelu municipali ...

Lelu municipality Lelu or Lelu Town is a municipality of the state of Kosrae, in the Federated States of Micronesia. The municipality of Lelu consists of Lelu Island (a small satellite island of Kosrae Island) and a big part of the northeastern portion of Kosrae ...

.Schools
"

. Retrieved on February 23, 2018.

References

Maps

General Soil Map of Kosrae produced by the US Department of Agriculture
Municipalities of Kosrae {{Micronesia-geo-stub

Geography

Utwa-Walung Marine Park

Education

See also

References

Maps