For a small society like Palau
fragile environment
very limited resources
very limited opportunities
we have to basically live with the environment.
And this is where our traditions come into focus.
Bul literally translated is prohibition,
but there’s a deeper meaning to bul
prohibition in the sense that you’re doing this
to benefit your children.
You're doing this because you have
to think about tomorrow
and the day after tomorrow
and the years coming.
When we see that
certain spot is depleting so much,
we apply that bul
and then it revives itself.
I am a fisherman
and I like to think of myself as
having taken a leave of absence from fishing
so that I could serve in public service.
What I have been doing is
making those traditions and practices
into the laws of the land
so that it’s just not common knowledge
or traditional practices
so that it’s being enforced
by the people and also
enforced by the laws of the land.
Spearfishing
requires you to have some big lungs
to go down and really wait for the fish.
And you also have to be a good swimmer
and you have to really go down and
hold your breath and
get underneath the rock and
lure the fish into shooting range.
It’s a good game
but when I spearfish I usually
challenge myself to shoot a certain kind of fish.
Once I trick it and shoot it
I’m done for the day.
You only take what fits in your pot.
If you only take what you need
and leave the rest for the next day
it’s protecting them.
I just take what I can eat at that time.
If I put it in the freezer
I make sure I’ll share with the neighbors.
My relatives come, it’s a present.
Different factors have caused declines
in reef fish populations.
In many places it was the mechanization
or modernization of fishing gear
that’s led to humans basically
becoming far too efficient at catching fish.
I guess the world is driven
by economic considerations and
giving nature time to recover
is not necessarily what gives you
the greatest economic return in the short term.
And so
that kind of thinking has, I guess
brought us to where we are today.
Everyone in Palau
we actually have the same legacy.
We want to leave the world
a little bit better than what we came into.
That’s the Palauan traditional teaching.
That’s the legacy that we all want.