Aired (January 26, 2025): Sa isang diving spot sa Sulu, tila mauuwi sa emergency ang dapat sana’y fun dive ng grupo ni Doc Nielsen Donato dahil sa isang pawikang may malaking tumor sa katawan! Mailigtas kaya nila ang buhay ng pawikan?
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00:00The beauty of Sulu, is not only in their forests, but also in the depths of their oceans.
00:17That's why I haven't been able to dive in one of the dive sites here, the Panglima Tahil.
00:25But our fun dive seems to be heading back to an emergency.
00:45We got ready to dive early in the morning.
00:50Perfect day to dive.
00:53No current. Nice weather.
01:00According to the residents, this island is known for having many fish.
01:07That's why we will try to see them.
01:11When we dived,
01:16a sea snake immediately jumped on me.
01:23Even though they are not aggressive, they still need to be careful.
01:29Especially since they have a leader.
01:33After a few minutes, we saw something.
01:38An approaching big fish.
01:44Next to it is another resident fish of the island.
01:52It's a Donatello.
01:54They are both bright.
01:56This is what any animal should look like in the sea.
02:01We got ready, when suddenly, I noticed a diver with me.
02:08From a distance, it looks like a big rock full of moss.
02:13But when we approached it,
02:17it turned out to be a sea snake.
02:19We saw it in the middle of the sea.
02:25In my first dive in Panglima Tahil in Sulu,
02:30we were able to capture the beauty and richness of their sea.
02:36But underneath,
02:38something fell on us.
02:43A sea snake that we thought was dead.
02:49But to our surprise,
02:52it was still alive and in critical condition.
02:56Our decision was also critical.
03:01We decided to rescue it.
03:06A flipper was almost cut off.
03:10The flipper is broken.
03:17We need to lift it up because it has severe tumors.
03:21Let's see what we can do.
03:23One, two, three.
03:33What a dive!
03:35We didn't expect to see a turtle that needs help.
03:40Sometimes, you have to let nature take its course.
03:45But I felt sorry for them.
03:47Usually, when turtles rest, they can stay underwater for a long time.
03:52But this one, it rested three times.
03:55Which is not normal for a sea turtle.
03:58It's hard for it to stay underwater.
04:01This is where I saw the concern of my team and the residents of Pawikan.
04:10Our next step was to rescue it.
04:15The whole team decided to bring the turtle up
04:19to examine and see what we can do.
04:22We can operate on it and take out the tumor.
04:25Pawikan is at 50-50.
04:28So, we decided to operate on it.
04:32Okay.
04:34Wow.
04:36Because its body is almost full of tumors.
04:40One big tumor on the left flipper.
04:43Two, three.
04:45And then, lots of small ones.
04:50It has 15 tumors.
04:52This is my OR today.
04:55So, what I'm going to do is,
04:57we're going to just do nerve blocking
05:01by using some local anesthesia.
05:06So, this is just to minimize the bleeding.
05:13I'll start with the big one.
05:16Look at that.
05:18The neck of the tumor.
05:20The neck of the tumor.
05:28Fibropapillomatosis is called the cauliflower-like tumor of Pawikan.
05:35This is an infection caused by herpes virus.
05:40Almost all species of Pawikan can get infected.
05:44This disease can be transmitted to other species of Pawikan.
05:50I'm here with some residents of Sulu to treat Pawikan.
05:56Taking out the first tumor.
06:00The skin is thick.
06:04If not treated, Pawikan can become weak and die.
06:10Let's try to remove the tumor.
06:16We have to excise it completely.
06:19I think we're almost done with the side.
06:23Let's try to remove the tumor.
06:27We have to excise it completely.
06:31I think we're almost done with the side.
06:40I'm going to do a stitch-up.
06:50Now, we're going to work on the neck area towards the right flipper.
07:02Marunggas is the name of the resident of Pawikan.
07:07My last two stitches and we're done with Marunggas.
07:18Marunggas is an old name of this place.
07:21I'm going to give her antibiotics and pain reliever.
07:26In no time, we're going to take her back to the sea.
07:30We're going to document her swimming like a brand new turtle.
07:34Marunggas' surgery was a success.
07:38It took us an hour to operate Marunggas.
07:45These are the tumors we removed from her.
07:48All these tumors, we were able to take out.
07:51It's time to release Marunggas.
07:52Before we release her, I checked if she has enough strength to swim.
07:59Wow, look at this.
08:02Our patient is ready to swim without all those tumors.
08:06Nice save, you know.
08:08This is a great day for all of us because we just came here to see the resident sea turtles.
08:14We just came here to see the resident sea turtles.
08:19This is what we found.
08:21We found the sea turtle that needs help.
08:26When we put Marunggas in the water,
08:29suddenly, her strength came back.
08:35So we slowly released Marunggas back to her home,
08:41the sea.
08:44The sea.
08:46The sea.
08:48The sea.
08:50The sea.
08:52This January, Marunggas was able to swim again.
08:58She's back to the sea and in good condition.
09:04In every expedition we go,
09:08we try our best,
09:11especially in unexpected situations.
09:17And no matter what situation we face,
09:22we are ready to help to reduce their suffering.
09:37Thank you for watching Born to be Wild.
09:41For more stories about our planet,
09:44please subscribe to the JMA Public Affairs YouTube channel.