Diver captures heartbreaking footage of turtle feeding on raw sewage

The ocean’s most vulnerable creatures deserve better.

Diver and ocean photographer Charn Joon Park, 39, was swimming with friends near Bulabog Beach in Boracay, Philippines, last week when he came across a disturbing sight: an endangered sea turtle feeding on raw sewage.

Park filmed the adult female turtle, who was headlong in a pipe spewing a yellow-green substance, joined by several tropical fish also taking in the wastewater.

“I’m afraid that this incident could trigger another closure of the beach, but I guess people need to know about it,” Charn, from South Korea, told Viral Press.

The Pollution Adjudication Board of the Philippines is investigating the source of the pipe, according to Environment Undersecretary Benny Antiporda. The Environmental Management Bureau Region 6 also ordered a cease-and-desist of local water company Boracay Tubi System.

Boracay Island has been described as a “cesspool” by Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte, who closed the island’s beaches from April to October of last year, and has since put limitations on tourism, drinking and smoking on its shores.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources tested water near the pipe and found coliforms, a ubiquitous bacteria in human and animal waste, and usually present alongside pathogenic organisms, such as E. coli, according to the Department of Health.