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.
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