The Remote Micronesian Atoll Reawakening Traditional Management, Aided by Scientists

For thousands of years, the people of Ulithi Atoll have managed their reef atoll ecosystem using traditional knowledge.

Wedged between Japan, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea, they've used practices like seasonal fishing, taboos, and rituals to maintain a sustainable balance for their marine environment and the people who live there.

"We associate our belief system with sacred areas," said a local, John 'Magul' Rulmal Jr.

"That's steeped in management."

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However, as the outside world pushed in, the Ulithians' way of life and traditions were thrown off-kilter.

Now, in a unique collaboration with Western scientists, the people of Ulithi are fighting back.

"The basic goal is to live and experience this and share with our children as long as we can," Magul Rulmal said.

Disruptions to traditions

Ulithi Atoll sits on the edge of the Mariana Trench. It's one of the outer island chains of Yap State in the Federated States of Micronesia.

Four of these islands are inhabited; around 700-1000 people live there surrounded by the deep expanse of the Pacific Ocean.

Songs, stories, dances, and chants codify Ulithians' traditional knowledge and practices, including fisheries and reef management.

Patrick Nunn, Professor of Geography at the University of the Sunshine Coast, has worked extensively with traditional communities across the Pacific.

He said traditional peoples had not survived for thousands of years by luck.

"They've survived by design, and that design is founded in traditional knowledge," said Professor Nunn.

However, for the people of Ulithi, rapid global changes have made it extremely difficult to adapt these traditions to contemporary challenges.

This started during World War II when Ulithi Atoll became a crucial base for the US Navy.

Parts of the atoll were dredged, islands were cleared, and new technologies were introduced.

Chief Lazarus Ulith from the island of Fedarai said spearguns, flashlights, and motorboats completely disrupted traditional fishing practices.

This in turn led to problems with their main food sources from the sea.

"It's a big challenge," Chief Lazarus said.

"We finally realised that by not enforcing our traditional way of management we were probably overfishing."

A new way to fight back

Chief Pedrus from the island of Falalop said his people recognised fish numbers were declining, and their reefs were suffering, so they knew they had to do something.

But they'd been scarred by previous interactions with researchers who advised without understanding the cultural context.

They didn't want to lose their connection to culture and traditions.

"The goal is to use the values that are within these traditions, and then make a paradigm shift — adapt to the contemporary changes," Chief Pedrus said.

So they invited marine scientist Nicole Crane from non-profit One People One Reef to visit with a few colleagues.

Her background is in marine conservation and supporting traditional communities managing their marine resources.

"My guiding light was to see success in management and conservation through people," she said.

"Our objectives are to really deeply engage with people rather than say have a meeting with the community and then go do science.

"To understand how people who are 'of place' can lead this process, and how those of us who are not 'of place' but do have other resources can support that."

Together, the community of Ulithi and the scientists decided to work together through One People One Reef.

Their goal is to support Ulithians' way of life — informed both by traditions and data collected by scientists.

"To understand a little bit better the resources and the changes around us, so that we could stay here longer," said Magul Rulmal, who also jointly leads One People One Reef.

Dr. Michelle Paddack, another co-founder, said they were led by the community to collect data on what's changing and then fed results back.

"So we would share knowledge," she said.

"Here's some information. This is your land. This is your water — you choose."

Traditional management — with 'tweaks'

Directed by the community's concerns, the scientists began field surveys to understand which parts of the marine ecosystem were struggling.

Nicole Crane said they found new technology and fishing practices had "huge impacts" on fish and reefs.

"It didn't have to do entirely with overfishing or overpopulation, it had to do with targeted fishing," she said.

The community met in workshops to look at the data and talk about older models and principles of traditional management.

"In the old days, like in the fall, we'd just do certain kinds of fishing and stop fishing in the lagoon," Chief Lazarus said.

"In our time, we haven't closed the fishing grounds in the lagoon."

Chief Lazarus said the community decided to close one side of his home island of Fedarai.

"So we have set up this preservation.

"You cannot fish there, it lets the fish repopulate."

This approach flexibly closes areas of reefs or the lagoon to help fish populations recover — just as their ancestors did for generations — informed by contemporary data collected by marine scientists.

It also acknowledges that in places like Ulithi, a huge proportion of the people's food comes from the sea — so the closures might only be temporary, partial, or seasonal.

Rancy Taigumal, president of the Youth of Ulithi Association, said another change was restricting new fishing practices.

"Spearfishing is the sport of the young generation because you know it's fun," Mr. Taigumal said.

"But it's never a tradition for us."

The scientists' data showed spearfishing was catching large reef fish like parrotfish around his home island of MogMog.

But some species of parrotfish need to reach a certain size to change genders — so letting areas recover can mean more individuals have an opportunity to breed. 

To let more fish grow to a larger size, they've banned some targeted spearfishing around MogMog.

Nicole Crane said the outcomes of these changes were promising.

"Our data do show fish biomass is increasing, fish diversity is increasing," she said.

Dr. Paddack said allowing large algae-eating fish to return also led to benefits for the reef.

"We've long known that large fish that can graze down the substrate can be really important to helping to control what's growing on the substrate and allow settling places for some corals," she said.

"We know that that's probably supporting the ecosystem a lot."

Locally-managed protected areas

Associate Professor Peter Houk from the University of Guam is not part of this project but he studies different models of marine management in Micronesia. 

He said any kind of protected area can help ecosystems and fish recover.

"We've observed an increase in fish biomass by up to four times in some fully-enforced Marine Protected Areas," said Dr. Houk.

But he said the limited studies on locally-led fisheries management shows they don't always help ecosystems recover.

"In the blended traditional management and Western Marine Protected Area networks I study, we found them to be about 66% effective."

"This may seem low but is actually higher than many MPAs with strong top-down enforcement only," he said.

One People One Reef's scientists have published work showing community members believe their collaboration is helping.

But there's no peer-reviewed research yet conclusively demonstrating fish and marine recovery in Ulithi is caused by this return to traditional practices.

"Finding the direct connection between that and a change on a reef is extremely difficult with data," said Nicole Crane.

"But there's something more important that we can say and that is that if we talk to people, they will tell us, 'We see fish we haven't seen in 30 years.'

"So from their perspective, things have worked."

Dozens of community members across Ulithi Atoll's islands told the ABC they've seen the benefits on their reefs — and in what their fishers bring home.

"We managed to close half of the island to conserve and to protect," says John Ugulmar, who lives on the island of Falalop.

"It's beneficial to our community," he says.

"This is working," Mr. Taigumal said.

"To see physical changes and biomass changes; it's very promising," Magul Rulmal added.

"This is an approach that I feel like it's custom-made for this place."