I was sitting on the beach in Bali.
It's a beautiful beach.
And I was waiting for sunset.
And I see, from afar,
a small traditional boat come ashore,
and of course, a fisher was in there.
And the boat just ashore.
And that's the first time I met Newman, the fisher.
So, I help him push his boat to the land,
make sure that it's safe enough from the wave.
And while we pushing the boat,
I ask this very, very simple question to Newman.
I say, "So, how is your day, did you catch a lot
of fish today, and hopefully the big ones?"
And he say, "Well, I wish,
but unfortunately, you can see", he pulled some bucket
and yes, it's just few fish and they are small.
Actually, as a marine biologist,
scuba diver, I really know what Newman said.
Yes, this is Bali and like all other island
in Indonesia, this is paradise.
And I believe most of you will say, "Bali is a paradise."
And yes, this is the center of world's coral reef.
This is the place where you can see all the beauty,
all the most colorful coral reef beauty
of all the fish in the world.
But if you go deeper, things actually different.
The coral is destroyed, coral is damaged
and there are not many more fish out there.
And this is not just about 75%
of world's coral reef gone extinct,
it's not just about the fish that will just disappear,
this is about people, because there are lots
of people that depends on this coral reef.
There are a lot of people like Newman
and other Newman, that depends on this fish,
this healthy coral to feed their family.
It's about Newman as a dad that depends on this coral,
this fish,
to ensure that he can send his kids to a good school.
And I said to Newman, "Well, okay, so have you discussed
this problem with our government,
our officials office here?"
And Newman just said, "Well, the last time I did it,
they have no clue what to do."
And then while Newman, like, you know, trying
to clean his boat, taking the fish out of the boat,
he said this very, very, I never really expect this coming
from Newman, he said, "Life is difficult
and sometime you just have to accept it."
When Newman said that words, it's like a deja-vu
for me, like I've been there before.
It was like few years ago, when I'm still little kids
and I and my parents, we're living in deep rain forest
in Kalimantan, in Borneo, so I just like, yeah,
12-years-old kids and that time was just amazing.
I remember I see these, all these exotic birds,
all the animals, the orangutan,
there're lots of them.
And I remember, clearly remember, the tree just amazing.
So, if we want to hug a tree, it needs about 10
of us holds hand together just to hug a tree.
(audience laughing)
And like, wow.
But, somehow, there are lots of foreign timber company
coming to my tree, sorry, my forest,
and what they did, they chop down all the tree,
they cut down all of my trees.
And then somehow again, they leave us.
Which is later on I learned that it was the time
when we have the Asia financial crisis.
And I ask my father, "Dad, what's going on here?
Why these people coming and then cut down all
of my trees and then no more beautiful birds,
no more orangutan here and they just leave us with nothing?"
And my dad that time just said, "Well it's very hard to,
very difficult to understand and sometime
in life, you just have to accept it."
At that time I just like, yeah, you know, 12 years,
little kids, but that time, that moment
when Newman said the exact same words,
"Sometimes in life you just have to accept it",
I'm already 24 years old, I am understand it,
and I say, "Wait, this is not right."
So, carrots are growing inside of me and I said to Newman,
"Well, Newman, if you think you deserve better life,
you have to fight for it", and Newman just like,
busy cleaning his boat,
(audience laughing)
and then he stopped and suddenly looking at me and he said,
"Well, Jensi, if you can bring back the fish,
we will fight again."
I said, "Well, okay."
(audience laughing)
So, right the next day, I met with the government,
go to the government office, talking with the official
and I said, "I discussed this problem",
and just like what Newman said,
they have no clue what to do.
So, I come back and then meet Newman
and his field officers, I say, "Okay Newman,
just like you said, the government, no clue."
But, I have a plan, I have an idea.
So I say, "We will create, we will make a fish bank."
And Newman just said, "What, fish bank?
Fish, bank?"
(audience laughing)
And I say, "Yes, fish bank.
Just like your normal bank where you save your money,
our fish bank instead of saving money,
we will save our fish.
So this is how we going to do this.
We will choose, we will select some part
of your fishing ground, the place you always fish in,
we will close the area, we will protect it,
so no one go there to fish, no one go there
to catch our fish, so the fish can grow in bigger
and bigger and then makes lot of baby fish
and the fish growing bigger and bigger again
but, you can still fishing, you can continue
your fishing activities, but not inside the fish bank,
but outside the fish bank, because fish swim in and out."
And I'm thinking, well that sounds, makes sense.
And I say, "Well, I learned this fish bank
from the time when I'm still in the university
and it worked in some places in Philippines,
things like that, but I'm not really sure,
naturist, there are a lot of formations in nature,
and Newman said, "Well, let's give it a try."
But then, we don't know what to do.
None of us like finished our elementary school, actually.
So, I said to Newman, "Well, we will work together."
So, I helped them, I teached them some skill
at Newman and his field officers, scuba diving,
so they can see how things work underwater.
So, this fisherman now become scuba diver.
(audience laughing)
And then I say, "Please move in there, move in there",
things like that and then I teach them also how
to do checking whether the coral is growing,
whether the fish is growing bigger,
or more abundant, more, many more fish there.
So, they do all these stuff and then
they also really, you know, guard the area,
they protect it, like the security.
And then, one year pass by and we have this
very specific, traditional ceremony for this fish bank.
So, it's like asking for blessing
and also being thankful for what we done.
So, we have this priest coming and pray for the fish bank
and then sending all the prayers and also lots
of villagers come in, the small one,
also the parents coming, bringing all the offerings,
so it's like very sacred, sacred ceremony.
When also we have like the young ones, the girls, the boy,
they, you know this traditional dancing,
the Kecak dance, the Balinese dancing.
So, it's like a sacred ceremony, but also a fun.
So, and they invited me to come to this ceremony.
So, I go to this ceremony and Newman and his field officers
and some of the elders come to me and say,
"Jensi, few days ago, we just check our fish bank.
And you know what we found?
There are lots of fish in the fish bank.
And not just a lot, they are big, they are big ones.
And not just inside the fish bank, it's also
outside the fish bank, there are lots
of big fish outside the fish bank.
So next time you ask me how is my day,
did I catch a lot of fish today, I will say,
definitely yes, Jensi, I catch lots of fish.
And not just lots, they are big ones."
And Newman like take my hands and hold it really,
really deep and he say, "Jensi, the fish bank works.
We bring back the fish.
You bring back the fish.
You bring back our hopes."
Thank you.