jean beasley

Remember Jean Beasley, whom I visited at her Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehab center in Topsail Island, NC a few months back? In the past few weeks, she has admitted more than two dozen sea turtles due to the unseasonably cold weather in the southeast.

As temperatures fall precipitously and the turtles' heart rate and body temperature drop, they become immobile. Floating on the surface to breathe, they are blown to shore, where they can freeze to death.

I’m back from Bald Head Island, NC – but fear not, there’s one last adventure to report. One of my last days down there, I drove to Topsail Island, which is a short drive up the coast, to see Jean Beasley’s famed turtle hospital (named after her daughter Karen).

Beasley, who won Animal Planet’s 2007 hero of the year award, is a teacher-turned-turtle activist whose hospital started as a single injured turtle under a tent in her backyard in the mid-‘90s.

The “hospital” is a small warehouse with about 20 pools of varying sizes and depths, each containing an injured sea turtle. Staffed by around 70 volunteers, (plus 150 helping with nesting on the beach), the hospital currently houses three species of sea turtles – loggerheads, greens, and Kemp’s ridleys.