An endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle named Pancake swam back into the Atlantic at 1:13 p.m. on July 23, 2026, off the beach outside the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, while a crowd chanted the turtle’s name. The release closed out eight months of rehabilitation that involved four organizations in three states.
The chain that got Pancake here
Pancake, a juvenile estimated at two to five years old, was found cold-stunned on November 22, 2025 at Duck Harbor Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Cold-stunning is what happens when water temperature drops faster than a turtle can migrate out of it: the animal becomes hypothermic, stops swimming, and washes ashore.
From there the handoffs went like this. The Massachusetts Audubon Society made the rescue. The New England Aquarium provided emergency triage and medical treatment. On December 3 the turtle transferred to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society’s Sea Turtle Care Facility in Westhampton Beach, New York, for months of specialized rehabilitation. The New York Aquarium hosted the release.
No single one of those organizations could have done the whole job, which is rather the point.
What recovery looked like
Pancake now weighs about 11 pounds and was swimming strongly, actively chasing food and holding a steady diet of shrimp and clams before being cleared to go. The turtle’s sex is unknown, because determining it requires blood testing that serves no purpose during rehabilitation, so nobody ran it.
Pancake was one of 25 sea turtles transferred to AMSEAS during this cold-stunning season, and one of 125 the organization has treated at its care facility since 2020.
Cold-stunned turtles off Cape Cod feed rehabilitation programs up and down the coast; the National Aquarium released nine of them at Ocean City in July from a group of 40 rescued last December.
Why Coney Island
The release doubled as a celebration of the New York State Environmental Protection Fund, established in 1993 and still the state’s primary source of funding for projects that protect and restore New York’s marine ecosystems, through its Ocean and Great Lakes Program. Representatives from the state DEC and Department of State, AMSEAS, WCS, elected officials and New York Aquarium campers all stood on the sand for it.
It also put a spotlight on the New York Bight, the stretch of ocean running from Cape May, New Jersey to Montauk. It is one of the most biologically productive marine ecosystems on the East Coast, and it provides habitat and migration routes for endangered sea turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks, rays, seabirds and a long list of fish.
The part visitors can appreciate
The New York Aquarium sits directly on the Coney Island boardwalk, which is why a turtle can be walked out of the building and into the ocean it belongs in. Few aquariums in the country can do that. If you are visiting, the water beyond the boardwalk railing is not scenery. It is the same ecosystem the exhibits inside are about, and there is a Kemp’s ridley somewhere out in it that New York put back.
Quick answers
- Who is Pancake?
An endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtle, a juvenile estimated at two to five years old, found cold-stunned on November 22, 2025 at Duck Harbor Beach in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.
- What is cold-stunning?
It is what happens when water temperature drops faster than a turtle can migrate out of it. The animal becomes hypothermic, stops swimming and washes ashore.
- Which organizations were involved in the rehabilitation?
Four, across three states. The Massachusetts Audubon Society made the rescue, the New England Aquarium provided emergency triage and medical treatment, the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society's Sea Turtle Care Facility in Westhampton Beach, New York took over on December 3 for months of specialized rehabilitation, and the New York Aquarium hosted the release.
- When was Pancake released?
At 1:13 p.m. on July 23, 2026, off the beach outside the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, after eight months of rehabilitation. The turtle weighed about 11 pounds and was swimming strongly.
