IT STARTED WITH A TWEET.

Maybelle Fortaleza, a University Research Associate for Coral Reef Resiliency and Ecology Studies Laboratory in UP Mindanao, tweeted a screenshot of a message she got from a fisher which, in Tagalog, thanked her for helping the because dive shop owners have been threatening fishers with jail time for catching parrotfish. Her accompanying status simply read, “Hay,” accompanied by a sad emoji.