Grant Awarded to Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Hospital
posted: November 19, 2025, 1:43 PM
Our Board of Directors recently met with Kathy Zagzebski, the Executive Director for the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Surf City. The “Sea Turtle Hospital” is our closest wildlife conservancy partner and we awarded a grant to them as thank you for their important work and continuing support for the care for injured and sick sea turtles transport to them. They will use the grant to care for cold stunned sea turtles. We awarded the grant ahead of the winter weather that causes sudden and prolonged decreases in water temperature. Sea turtles that haven’t migrated are suddenly caught up in these cold weather conditions and may be affected with pneumonia, severe hypothermia, or frostbite on their shells and skin and will need immediate rescue and rehabilitative care.
We also awarded a grant to the Snooki Travel Fund. Snooki, a Loggerhead Sea Turtle who has a buoyancy disorder due to a spinal injury and can’t be released back into the ocean, has resided at the “Sea Turtle Hospital” for several years but needed a bigger and permanent home. Recently, she moved to her forever home at Minnesota Zoo. She is housed in the Zoo’s 250,000-gallon Atlantic Reef exhibit, a tank 50 times the size of her old pool, and continues to be a great ambassador for her species.
PHOTO: Pictured positions from left to right, Kathy Zagzebski KBSTRRC, Dr. Craig Harms of NC State’s Center for Marine Sciences and Technology (CMAST), CMAST students, and Beasley Hospital volunteers, working on cold-stunned sea turtles in January 2024.
PHOTO: Pictured positions from left to right, Deva Tucker HBTP Director-at-Large, Pat Cusack former HBTP Permit Holder/Program Coordinator, Kathy Zagzebski KBSTRRC, and John Cifelli HBTP President. Snooki is in her old pool.
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