Woman rescues injured sea turtle at Wrightsville Beach

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This is video of a rescue at Wrightsville Beach, not of a swimmer, but of an injured sea turtle.  

The turtle was in “Little Lollipop Bay” located just north of the U-S 74 Wrightsville Beach bridge.  

A volunteer with Wrightsville Beach Sea Turtle Patrol called fellow member Nancy Fahey  

When Fahey arrived, she threw on her life jacket and jumped into the water to find the turtle. 

It had a damaged shell and was underwater for long periods of time before surfacing. 

“So I asked if somebody would help me, so one of the guys got his life jacket on and he jumped in and helped me swim her from the center of the lagoon over to the bulkhead, like we got to the sandy beach so we could get her out of the water,” said Fahey. 

Fahey says they named the turtle “Bee Balm.” 

She’s now receiving treatment at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City. 

Fahey says last year, she helped rescue more than a dozen distressed sea turtles, compared to only a couple this year.  

 She worries people are not calling when they see a turtle in distress. 

“She (Volunteer) called me and let me know about it and that’s what we depend on, like, we depend on notification from the public when they see the turtles in trouble out there because otherwise we wouldn’t know about it,” said Fahey.