OAK ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — The Oak Island Sea Turtle Protection Program is trying to figure out who ruined two sea turtle nests.

Co-Directors Jacci Hohnstein and Eileen Ramsdale said a vandal or vandals took out the stakes and sign for one and knocked down the runway for the other last week on the west end of the beach. She said she’s never seen anything like it and can’t fathom why someone would do that.

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“It’s just sad,” Hohnstein said. “We go through so much work for our turtle program and do all this and mark it and make sure that the turtles get to the ocean and somebody just goes through and destroys it.”

Elizabeth Norwood looks for nests every year. She knows not to disturb them.

“We want to keep sea turtles around, they’re really cool!” Norwood said. “I think it’s cool that they’re trying to preserve the turtle nests.”

“We have a lot of people who are engaged in this program,” Ramsdale said. “Tourists love it. Kids love it and I just have to think it was somebody being stupid.”

Messing with sea turtle nests is a crime. Officials said violators could face a $100,000 fine and even prison time.

Some of the sea turtles from one of the vandalized nests are now home in the ocean. 86 baby sea turtles were excavated in Oak island. Bystanders cheered on the sea turtles as they were guided to the shore line.

Kathy Wycoff has been volunteering for eight years, and says one part always reminds her how special the moment was.

“The boil, everybody will tell you that,” she said. “There is nothing more exciting than watching a hundred and some turtles come out of the ground for no particular reason except they were down there.”

Not all of the eggs in this next hatched Tuesday, so a second excavation will take place in the future.